


Framing The Ripper

by sku7314977



Series: An Alpha And His Omega [2]
Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Action, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Domestic Fluff, Heat Cycles, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Mystery, Omega Verse, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Prison Sex, Sex, Sick Day Sequel, Stalking, Strip Search, false heat
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-18
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-03-07 21:14:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3183437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sku7314977/pseuds/sku7314977
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Its been a year since Hannibal's accidental stumble upon Will in heat and the pair have been enjoying life and the 'Happily Ever After' they'd created with each other.  Right up until Hannibal's unexpected arrest as the Chesapeake Ripper.<br/><strong>Will update upon the completion of Seeing Double.</strong></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Happy Anniversary

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DarkmoonSigel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkmoonSigel/gifts), [Everett_Harte](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Everett_Harte/gifts), [Mads_Mikkelsen_Enthusiast](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mads_Mikkelsen_Enthusiast/gifts), [Mads_Hugh_Lover](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mads_Hugh_Lover/gifts).



> It's been year. 
> 
> A whole year since I joined AO3 and wrote “Sick Day”. I don’t know how that story managed to gain a following of over 300 people, but when I went to my statistics one day and saw that, it made me want to cry. The story managed to get over 40,000 hits! I can't even begin to explain to you how much this means to me. I joined this site a year ago because I fell in love with Darkmoonsigel’s work and loved her ability with words so fiercely that I made an account and wrote her a gift. Since then I've become addicted to writing and made a number of truly amazing friends, all thanks to that first little story and this site.
> 
> So thanks to the story’s popularity and in honor of making it one year on a site without quitting I’ve written a sequel. Let’s hope it doesn’t disappoint. C;
> 
> Thank you all!!! I own nothing!!!
> 
> Not beta read. (If you’re interested in taking on the task feel free to give me a shout)

When Will awoke that morning it was to the warmth of a blooming fire at the foot of the bed and the smell of freshly brewed coffee closer than the sneaking aroma filtering from downstairs. Eyes still heavy with sleep, Will pulled his head from under the pillow he'd burrowed beneath during the night and looked over his shoulder to the handsome Alpha holding the beverage of his desire balanced on a silver breakfast trey.

"Hannibal?" He smiled, easing out from under the covers as the killer in question laid the trey on his bedside table. "I thought we weren't allowed food in the bedroom." He said examining the heavenly breakfast delivered.

"Normally we’re not." He agreed, giving a sharp whistle that nearly started the Omega from their bed. Will didn't have more than a second to think about the action before he was surrounded, the pack that had been forbidden from entering their home erupting into the bedroom.

It was nearly overwhelming; he hadn't been smothered by his dogs in the early hours of the morning in so long Will had nearly forgotten the feeling of paws scrapping over sheets and icy noses against his cheek while sleep sting clung to him like a shroud. He couldn’t stop the laugh that erupted from him as he was tacked on the bed, the small horde taking over to ruin blankets with claws snagging silk as they fought for the attention of their master.

"Happy anniversary Will." The Ripper smiled, soft and genuine as he took a seat on the bedsides edge.

"Anniversary?" Will's brows knit in puzzlement as he turned from his pack to his mate, "Anniversary of what?"

Hannibal shooed Buster out of Will’s lap and moved the breakfast trey to take his place in the hopes of Will indulging in its offerings instead of the furry beasts. "Our ‘happy accident’." He answered leaning forward to capture confused full lips in a soft kiss.

"You have too much self-control for it to have been an accident, at least not a complete one." Will abandon the dogs to comb fingers through his Alpha's hair instead and pulled him closer for a second kiss, one longer and deeper than the chaste good morning he'd been greeted with. Hannibal laughed into it, a deep rumble, brief and teasing, to roll through Will and make his toes curl. A year ago he never would have thought such a thing were possible, this kind of happiness, not for him at least. Will had learned early on that life did not give him nice things. Life tempted him and built his hopes before pulling the rug out from under his feet so he could watch it all fly out of reach; until Hannibal.

He hadn't fallen with Hannibal, he'd taken the hand that reached out to catch him and kept the broken offering he'd been given. Ripper or not, Hannibal was his and if he had to be broken to have something good in his life; broken he would be. Since accepting the Ripper as his mate his life had never been so easy. He’d taken his hand and finally given over to the darkness that had haunted him all his life and it had been the simplest transition he’d ever made. The world of smoke, mirrors and shadows fitting him like a glove, not the awkward jigsaw puzzle piece he’d always lived as before while trying to be the man everyone expected him to be and fit into society’s mold. He’d finally been given something good in his life and he’d sold his soul to the Devil to keep it.

"At first I had thought the same," Hannibal admitted, a calloused thumb running over his lover’s silky cheek, "but I don't think that was the case. Your scent was more desirable than any I'd encountered before. I'd never felt compelled to pursue an Omega or bond prior to our meeting. But upon meeting you I'd desired a life bond, even while believing you to be a Beta. Discovering your secret of being an Omega and that a true connection could be made, scenting your heat...I may have held less control over myself then I knew." But it was a question he would never have answered: Could he have picked up the bowl he'd dropped, _dropped_ , and walked away from the tsunami of pheromones that had consumed him and the possibility of true happiness that awaited upstairs? Or would he slip off his shoes and pursue him as he had? It was an answer he would never know the answer to because even if he could resist and fate were to present him with such second chances, he would climb those stairs if only for what he had now.

Will's smile, less awkward than it had been a year before, more used and free than it had been prior to their mating, grew, "You think I actually overwhelmed you?" It was a flattering notion, to be the first and only Omega to have overpowered the senses of Hannibal Lecter and be sought after by the Alpha who had refused all others before him without temptation.

"I believe you did." Another kiss and he slipped the steaming cup of dark roast into Will's hands.

"I never thought of this as our anniversary," He admitted, "I figured if we had one it would probably land on the day I accepted you as my Alpha and more or less said 'yes'." Or that they didn't have an anniversary at all. Something he didn't doubt spoke volumes about his character and he was happy Hannibal didn’t look into.

Will rolled the heated mug in his hands, letting the warmth sink into his fingers before lifting it to his lips to taste the bitter sweetness cradled inside. "I didn't get you anything." But he recognized the dogs lying on the bed with him as the gift that it was meant to be and he appreciated the sentiment. He knew Hannibal would be running the jewel toned bedding through the washer later that day if he didn’t outright dispose of it. Hannibal might be letting Will have them to cuddle in that moment, but that didn't mean he was about to climb under blankets covered in dander.

"I'm sure we can work something out." He said with a minute smile and it gave it all away. The little twist of lips a little too pleased at the corner of his mouth, the mirth that traveled to his eyes, it made Will want to groan.

"You already have something planned." Will wondered if Hannibal actually considered their 'happy accident' as their anniversary or if he would simply accept the day as such because he knew Will would have nothing in preparation and in turn would be forced to submit to whatever social event he desired the company of his mate present in convenience of the date. "How bad is it?"

"Hardly the enthusiasm I'd appreciate for our evening."

Will looked again at the dogs in the bed, "How bad?"

Hannibal’s smile grew despite himself and he motioned the dogs onto the floor so Will could attempt to eat his breakfast in relative peace before he lost his appetite entirely. "It's a charity auction; I'd like to attend it this evening, preferably with you."

He took a bite out of the fluffy omelet and considered the request, "You wouldn't accept an anniversary blow job?" He counter offered.

"I would accept one as an apology for forgetting our first anniversary, but no, it will not excuse you from the evening." He answered bemused.

Stormy eyes narrowed in challenge. "You brought me breakfast in bed and let my pack into the house," a big deal, but he wasn't about to play into that, "I think choking on a knot is about the equivalent." The bemused smile turned to one of his more cocky winning grins and Will wished he was better with dates. "There's more?"

"It's our first anniversary, do you really think I would only bring you breakfast in bed?" He opened the drawer of Will's night stand and the Omega was left to wonder when his Alpha had slipped the small bronze paper and ivory ribbon wrapped box into his drawer. "You've been out of the field too long William, your profiling skills are slipping."

He accepted the package with another curious look to his Alpha, mind wondering to what could possibly be hidden inside that put him on par with attending a large boisterous social function. Pulling the ribbon to slide free of its bow and fall to the bed he peeled back the thick wrapping paper to reveal a decorative box and within it a curl of paper.

It was a deed. One he hadn't expected to ever see again, a piece of paper that made his breath stop and his heart thrum. "I...sold this land..." The land beneath his little farm house because he'd burned the house to the ground along with everything in it.

"And I bought it back." It warmed him in a way that, for all his skill in language, he couldn’t describe. To see Will so profoundly happy at the sight of his old home returned was moving in a way words could not describe, a happiness given by him. "The house was completed last week," he continued, gaining a look of stunned gratefulness from the only man who mattered in all his life. "The furnishings should be assembled; though I haven't had the opportunity to examine the house myself. You'll have to forgive me if there are any errors to be found."

"But...I thought...didn't you want me to sell it?" He didn't know what to say, how to thank him for returning his home to him, his own piece of land with his own house and furniture. The deed was made out to Will, ownership and possession given with special permission from the Alpha of his owning, Hannibal's signature of approval and the court stamp to prove Will's solitary commandment of the property.

There was something all his own again.

"If I had left it to you before you would have ran to it, I needed you comfortable with us. I had to be sure you had nowhere to run but our home in Baltimore until our bond had finished developing." He hoped there would never be a time where Will would ever feel the need to run, not from him. "I don't think you'll be leaving me now."

"No," he promised, "I’m not going anywhere.” He dropped the curl paper, leaving the deed to flutter to the floor, coffee and breakfast abandoned to the tableside as he looped his arms around the man who had freed him more than kept him and pulled him to crawl on top. "I would burn heaven and raise hell to stay by your side."

"I would raze the world to keep you.” He kissed his Omega, nipping supple lips to deepen it with a searching tongue, licking his way into his mouth as hips found hips and a leg raised to slide along the hard muscle of his side. He rolled against the slighter man beneath him, grinding their sex’s and eliciting a pleasure filled moan from his mate, “A never ending sounder of all those who would oppose our happiness." They kissed and it was nothing but passion, a sudden need for skin burning through their bond as hands searched beneath shirts for fevered flesh.

“I love you,” Will spoke into lips as fumbling fingers pulled a cashmere sweater over head and shoulder to toss carelessly to the floor, his attention quickly shifting to the cotton striped sleeping pants that remained.

Will's own night shirt pulled from him as he tried to work the elastic waist over shapely hips, releasing the pants long enough to allow the fabric over his head and down arms to be lost to the floor, another sacrifice to the dogs circling to sniff offering as they were abandoned, Hannibal's pants and Will's sleeping shorts all too quick to follow.

Biting kisses pressed to the satin scares of a bonding mark long since healed, tongue tasting the fevered skin along Will's throat, the only physical marker of the powerful bond shared between them, keeping them as one and a whole instead of the two broken pieces they had once been. His own wasn’t nearly so neat, despite the aid of his own hormone infused saliva spread across the ragged flesh of Will’s marking bite it had healed thick and ropey against the tanned flesh of his neck. A mark he wore like a crown.

Hannibal didn’t know if he could feel love anymore, so far removed from his humanity by the horrors that had shaped him into the master of murder and shadow he had become to feel such warm emotion. But what he felt for his William was far beyond anything he’d come to known in life since Mischa.

Fingers carded through ashen locks and lithe legs encompassed his tapered waist, hips rising to grind swelling erections in eager encouragement. "Hannibal," he mouthed the name against the Ripper’s throat, blunt teeth catching on the thick ropey scar of his Alpha’s marking, the name a sigh on his lips as friction and pleasure built between them with another roll of hips that set a fire to burn low in his stomach. “Don’t make me wait.” He didn't want foreplay this morning; he wanted to feel his mate join him as one.

Will’s desire fed into Hannibal like a river, their bond a living thing formed between them like an extension of themselves into the each other. “Impatient,” He mused, taking Will’s rolling hips in hand to still as he pressed the mushroom head of his cock against his slick sodden hole and thrust deep inside. The familiar grip of heat clenched around him as he pushed to fill Will all the way to the core, sheathing himself in one fluid motion.

His breath hitched, toes curling as Hannibal found the cluster of nerves hidden deep inside, a flood of pleasure twisting low in his gut like fire as he felt the cock head push thrust against his pleasure.

“Beautiful,” He kissed the jumping flesh of Will’s belly, pulling himself until only the tip of his cock remained seated within, drawing an almost needy sound from his mate before snapped his hips to fill him again, forcing a pleasured cry from his lover as arched from the mattress, hands clenching his Alpha with growing need.

“Hannibal,” He moved against the girth filing his insides, "Faster," he demanded, voice catching in his throat as he met his Alpha’s thrusts with canting hips.

In this he wasn’t made to wait, Hannibal moving over him to gather the Omega into his arms as he thrust into his lover, driving deeper, snapping faster to bubble pleasure filled keens from Will in sweet repetition.

Blunt nails raked the length of his Alpha’s back, his body tensing as his climax built until he could take no more and he came, shuttering around his Alpha as his heat spilled between them. With his mate satisfied Hannibal slowed, his pace changing to a smoother, calmer thrust as he sought his own, rocking them as one as he enjoyed the whimpered, sated moans of his Omega until at last Hannibal found his end with a shuttering sigh of his own.

"I'm glad you like your gift." Hannibal smiled, whipping sweat slicked curls from Will's face to kiss panting lips in a leisure kiss. "Should I take your enthusiasm as agreement to join me this evening?"

Will sighed, relaxing back against the soft bedding as his legs fall from his Alpha's waist to settle by his sides, fingers moving to play with the lengths of tousled ashen hair, "It would be a dick move not to go after ‘forgetting’ our anniversary and you buying me a house, wouldn't it?"

Hannibal offered an almost playful look and kissed the curve of his jaw, "I believe on a social standing it would be frowned upon, yes."

Will didn't groan his dismay, but he wanted to. "You planned this on purpose."

"Coincidence may have brought a few things together with a convenient date I had hoped to convince you to attend." Convince because Will hated any social event beyond an intimate dinner with friends.

There would be no getting out of this though, whether Hannibal had deliberately planned to use the date and generous purchase as a way to manipulate Will or if he truly considered the entire ordeal to be another 'happy accident', it didn't make any difference, it would still leave Will looking like an ass if he refused. "I'll go." He succumbed, carding his fingers though Hannibal's hair to make the remaining still smooth strands stand in an array of bed head seen by no one save himself. "Did you pick me out a suit for the evening?"

"It's a black tie event; you'll be wearing a tuxedo." Hannibal answered as though Will wasn't tousling his hair to stand in every direction.

"The same one I wear for the opera?" He'd attended a few events with his mate, it wasn't his favorite activity and Hannibal knew not to expect him to join him for every event of his social calendar, but every once in a while Will would surprise the doctor and join him for a night out.

Only this one wasn't much of a surprise.

"The same, yes." He confirmed, pleased with the outcome of their agreement. He knew Will would find something to make it up to him later, the notion of a late gift for their forgotten date appealing to the Alpha. For all their time together and as well as he knew him, Will still managed to surprise him, a pleasantry in their relationship he adored.

Lying back Will tried to go for one last small win, "Do I have to wear a tie?"

OoOoO

TBC


	2. Last Dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hannibal and Will go to the charity auction together and enjoy a romantic night together~<3
> 
> Then everything goes to hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge thank you to Darkmoonsigel for this chapter. Wonderful woman took the time to walk me through a charity auction and all the little details those events entail, thank you darling~<3
> 
> Another thank you to the lovely readers who've decided to join me in reading this sequel, it always makes me happy to know that my stores are being enjoyed.
> 
> Also, I am having a 'To Be Posted' date on this story so it will never be late and thus I can't fall behind on it as I do my other stories. That said I am leaving for Cuba on Saturday when this is to be posted and Have a butt tone to do tomorrow, so instead of posting this tomorrow last minute or trying to remember Saturday at 5:00am I'm posting it early and will post chapter 03 soon as I get back. C:
> 
> I own nothing. 
> 
> Not Beta Read.

He had to wear a bow-tie.  
  
Dressed in a Brioni tuxedo Will didn't want to know the cost of and Italian shoes he knew without asking had been imported he sat in the Bentley next to his Alpha as he drove them from their Baltimore home to the hotel Monaco.  
  
From where he was sitting the old B&O railroad headquarters turned hotel made him think of a castle.  
 The building was a historical site, over a hundred years old and one of the more luxurious hotels the city had to offer.  “Do they ever do these events in fire halls?”  Will asked looking out his window and up the towering building side.  It had been built in the French beaux-arts architecture style, giving the skyscraper an all stone exterior to contrast against its many glass windows.  
  
“Some may, but none of the ones we will be attending.”  He parked the car by the curb side, directly in front of the doors.  
  
“I’m going to have to make a point of taking you to one of the local kennels for fundraising bake sale sometime…”  He muttered, combing fingers back through half tamed waves of curly hair before reaching for the door.  It was time to let the night begin.    
  
"Just a moment," Hannibal caught him, touching Will’s arm to have him still before he could open the door to leave the car.  Pausing he let Hannibal exit before him, the Alpha stepping around the Bentley to open the door for his mate, offering his hand to Will like the gentleman he knew him to be and help him out of the car and onto the red carpet.    
  
It was an action that put the entire evening into perspective for the Omega.  The people he would be drinking with, the behaviour that would be expected if he didn’t want to embarrass his Alpha, this might be a charity but to Hannibal this was no small event.  The red carpet Will had only ever expected to see on late night award TV programs was an addition he hadn't been expecting, the traditional red rug rolled out for them all the way to the curb in greeting.  “You look very handsome this evening,” Hannibal praised, kissing the hand he had taken before offering his arm; Will took it as expected and walked with him to one of the many men and women lining its sides of the carpet in anticipation of the necessary valet parking service that would be required for the evening.    
  
It was with his newly gained confidence and composure, something built through his time with Hannibal, which Will took in the new and strange environment he was being brought into as Hannibal approached the nearest valet and offered his keys with the polite request for parking and a tip.  “I think I prefer the opera.”  Will mentioned as they stepped through aged wood and glass double doors to be greeted by an attendant on the other side to check their invitation and allow them access into the rented hall for the evening.  
  
“You prefer the seclusion of a private booth.”  The ability to take a break when overwhelmed by the masses, though Will had begun to do better with social excursions and public events, his empathy would always leave him tired and drained from excess social interaction.  “We’ll have a private table instead of a booth for this evening.  It won’t be the same, there will be other tables close by, but ours will be seated directly before the stage.  Once the auction begins we’ll have our privacy.”  
  
"As long as there will be a break at some point this evening," he would still feel the air of competition, but it wasn’t the same as socialization.  Looking around he took in the room, it was nothing Will was used to nothing entirely new, the few opera’s he’d attended sharing a similar appearance.  The room itself looked as though it had been carved from marble, towering pills and polished walls reaching up to a cathedral ceiling, the floors were laid in a blend of hard wood and textured carpet, a deep red with deep purple slashes.  He wouldn’t know for sure if the furniture had been bought in the style of antiques or if they had purchased a number of aged pieces for their antiqued value, but he was sure they would be expensive all the same.  
  
Hannibal offered his own reassurance, touching the hand that held his arm and before stepping into the large rented hall.  Hannibal slipped their invitation to a Beta greeting guests at the door and Will was surprised once more when their names were announcement as they stepped into a room more lavish than the entry they’d entered from.    
  
Will was as far from his element of solitude and dogs as he was ever going to be and he nearly cursed Hannibal for having taken him there.  This wasn’t the same as attending the opera, there would be no private booth for them to disappear into during the night to give Will a break from the constant bombardment of the people around him pushing into his mind, he would be forced to mingle for longer periods of time and when the time of their seclusion finally came and they were seated at their table he would still be surrounded by the aggression of a competition auction.  It was a greater stress then he’d been expecting.     
  
"Would you like a drink?"  Hannibal asked, pulling Will away from his silent musing of murder against his mate and back to the present.  He looked to the hand touching his own and the deep wrinkles forming in Hannibal's suit jacket beneath his fingers.  
  
"Not champagne, something stronger."  He said searching the crowd of beautifully dressed Alpha’s, Omega’s and Beta’s in search of his vice.  
  
Will spotted his oasis near the door, a bar set just to the right of the entry.  Manned by a couple of lovely Omega woman, the pair were pouring champagne and shaking martini's fast enough Will almost had to wonder if they knew who they were serving anymore.  The little bar was overrun, with enough patrons standing around and waiting for drinks to have Will second guessing how badly he needed his own.  
  
"This way," Hannibal encouraged, leading Will away from the cluster of waiting socialites and through the dance floor toward the seating area of the auction and stage.  They passed another two bars as they progressed toward the back of the room, both nearly as crowded as the first.  One sat invitingly between the auction tables lining the left wall, the numerous settings containing the many items that would be for bid that evening; the other sat to the right, just to the side of a large squared area that Will could only assume had been reserved for mingling and dancing.  The music for the evening was supplied by a small orchestra of seven and their conductor playing for the crowd.  
  
Will didn't envy any of them the task of playing for the few hours that would last before and after the auction during mingle and payment.  
  
"We've passed three bars."  Will pointed, deciding that he needed the beverage enough to battle his way through the masses.    
  
“We’re almost there.”  Hannibal assured as they stepped through the array of tables making up the auction area set before the back wall stage.  Each table held a folded triangle of thick stationary, the name of the patron to be seated for the evening scrawled across in fine calligraphy and accompanied by a numbered paddle.  
  
Hannibal slipped his hand to the small of Will's back, bringing the anxious Omega closer as he steered them toward the fourth and final bar.  It held the smallest cluster of men and women circling its front for drinks; placed the closest to the stage it was obviously meant to keep the patrons sated while they threw their money away in the name of charity.  Will didn't doubt that it would be the busiest of the four bars once the auction proceedings began.  
  
"What would you like?"  Hannibal spoke into his ear as he led Will up to the counter, collecting his wallet from the inner pocket of his jacket.  
  
"Gin martini?"  He wanted something potent and martinis were nothing but three ounces of pure alcohol.  There was the bonus of Hannibal possibly appreciating him not drinking his usual cheap whiskey while walking around to look at junk while feigning interest for a few hours.  
  
"And I'll have champagne."  The bartender nodded and Hannibal produced several bills, leaving a handsome tip for the Beta behind the counter.  "Not whiskey?"  He asking handing Will his chosen drink as they began to wonder past the numerous listed items displayed along the tables.  
  
"More liquor without seeming greedy and asking for a double."  He explained casting a curious look to a series of odd nesting dolls listed as being older than a number of states.  "Are you actually interested in buying any of this stuff?"  He asked examining the odd series of dolls; they looked like something that would have been haunted, found in the attic of a home where the family had all mysteriously died.  
  
Hannibal smiled around a sip of bubbly, deep maroon answering for him with a look that had Will wondering what disturbing garbage would be coming into the house.  “Nothing creepy in the bedroom,” Will demanded, watching the Ripper’s small smile widened.  The micro pull of lips at the corner letting Will know his opinion had been heard and most likely dismissed in regards to any and all decorating of their home.    
  
Hannibal had left one room for Will to do with as he pleased and after an assortment of small ugly dog ornaments had been arranged on the mantelpiece and windowsill he hadn’t allowed Will to partake in the decoration of any other room since.  “If you buy something that’s going to watch me in my sleep I’m going to burn it.”  
  
“And release the evil spirits trapped within?”  Hannibal teased, bringing a crooked smile to Will’s lips.  He loved that smile, the playful curve that pulled farther on one side than the other, a smile seen by seldom but him.  That smile disappeared when his attention shifted from the beautiful empath to the small cluster of socialites that approached.  
  
Will noted the turn of attention from himself to something over his shoulder and took a small breath to steal himself against the onslaught of Hannibal’s friends before turning to meet the small swarm.    
  
Hannibal was there for appearances.  Will had established long ago that though Hannibal enjoyed the majority of the events he attended, a number of them were simply because the life style he had chosen to pursue held certain expectations.  Among those expectations would be a certain amount of socialization with people he may not always care to share his free time with and others he would indulge in dinner parties because he found a certain level of enjoyment in being in their company.    
  
Of the group approaching Will recognized three he had seen at the Opera before, two that which had attend several of Hannibal’s dinner parties as guests and one he had witnessed Hannibal slip the business card of into his rolodex.  Whether or not there was anything Hannibal actually desired to bid for he would most likely end up purchasing something if only to say that he’d made his contribution to the charity and be invited to the next social event.  It made a statement of monetary value and social standing that Will knew his Alpha deeply enjoyed having applied toward his image.  
  
The whole thing reminded Will of high school.  
  
"Good evening,” He shook hands with their future dinner and two other guests before motioning toward Will, “you all remember my mate Will.  He accompanied me to the Opera this past spring."  He urged his empath forward to join the small social gathering, the hand that resettled on Will’s back grounding him as he met each set of eyes with a polite smile and incline of head in greeting.  Social protocol of an older day would have forbidden Will from making the casual eye contact with any Alpha but his own, a custom he was pleased to see buried with the turn of the century.  But the bowing had seemed to remain.  Beta’s and Alpha’s shook, Omega’s offered a token of submission with a simple incline to the higher genders.  
  
"Yes, how could we forget Dr. Lecter's elusive lover.”  Mrs. Komeda commented with a wire smile, “you're quite the center of gossip these days you know."  She was a tall slender Omega, one of Hannibal’s society friends he usually enjoyed the small talk and company of, "Hannibal has been sought after as a mate for years, you absolutely must tell us how you managed to lure him."  
  
Will smiled, it was small and practiced and not nearly as natural as the ones he shared with Hannibal, he was better than he had been, used his empathy for the advantage of hunting without hating it nearly as much as he used to, but there were still moments like these when he was surrounded by too much all at once and found himself relying on Hannibal and the grounding reassurance he brought to him, "You could say it was a…” he paused, let the tension draw as though searching for an appropriate word for their mating, “happy accident."  It was met with a round of light hearted giggles and chuckles from the group at the suggested salacious meeting between the two.  A look from his Alpha let Will know it was an acceptable answer.  
  
“Do we really need to get into detail?”  Hannibal gave each a look, a playful curl touching his words to end the topic of conversation with a humored note as the music playing came to an end and the orchestra changed tune to the gentle lulling music of a more familiar waltz.  
  
Attention gained by the change in music Hannibal turned his attention to the empath by his side, "Will, might I have this dance?"  He couldn’t have looked more grateful for the small reprieve.  Taking Hannibal’s hand to let the Alpha lead him away from the group and out toward the filing dance floor, their drinks abandoned for a busser to gather at their leisure.  
  
"You know I have absolutely no idea how to dance."  Will informed him as they found a place on the dance floor, taking one of the emptier areas to the back.  
  
Hannibal hadn't expected him to know.  Not with his background of growing up a poor fisherman’s son.  "It's not difficult,” He assured, “I'll teach you as we go."  Taking one hand into his own he placed the other to Will's waist, "place your hand on my bicep, near the shoulder," more were filtering out onto the dance floor now, a small flourish of spinning dresses and elegantly dressed men stepping and turning to the sound of a tune written nearly 200 years ago.  But the swell of dresses and flawless practiced movements of those born into money around them were nothing compared to the nervous man standing in his arms, "Left,” he began, leading Will in the slow movement of the dance, “back, right, forward," they stepped in a box, the most basic waltz, a beginner step beneath Hannibal's own skill at the aged dance, excluding the flourish of dips and spins he knew as intimately as he knew how to harvest a sounder.  But for Will these simple steps would be his beginning and Hannibal would allow him to grow as he had allowed the killer within him to grow.  
  
"One, two, three, four, one, two, three, -" He whispered the count for Will to follow, the Omega set on not stepping on his toes as they danced their simple square.  He knew there would be gossip, further interest in the man he had taken for his own who knew so little of the world Hannibal had built his life within.  
  
"If I'm going to be attending these events I might need to take a dance class."  Will muttered once he felt confidant he wouldn't be stepping on Hannibal's toes mid dance.  
  
"You plan to attend more?"  He added a turn, rotating their square as they danced and forcing Will's mind to split once more between speech and footwork, the movements not nearly as second nature to the empath as they were to the killer.  
  
"You want me to come."  He answered, "I still won’t be attending everything, you're far too social for me to keep up, but I'll try to join you a couple of times a month."  He wouldn't promise once a week, not yet at least, that was something he'd work his way up to, but he'd get there.  He'd make a point of it, for Hannibal.  
  
"Thank you," he kissed him, accepting the sentiment for all that it was before they were startled to a stop by the sound of doors flying open and the storming of combat boots over carpet and hardwood as a swat team of officers charged into the hall.    
  
It was by instinct that Hannibal moved his mate behind him, shielding Will from the encroaching danger with his body, as a drive to defend and protect shifted his weight to the balls of his feet and coiled hard muscle, readying the killer to spring.  
  
"Jack Crawford, FBI."  The voice of an all too familiar Alpha boomed, the man who had once been Will's boss making his presence known as the crowd parted before him like the Red Sea.  "Hannibal Lecter," He stopped at the edge of the dance floor, his own gun in hand and trained on the killer dressed as a man, "you are hereby under arrest for the murder of Thomas McKenzie."  
  
Head canted in a tilt, surprise took the killer as keen eyes narrowed taking in the demanding Alpha before him.  He kept his sights trained on Jack as the supporting officers closed in around him, an audible gasp filling the room with whispers of gossip and surprise, "Will, I would you to get back please."  
  
"Why?”  He didn’t want to leave him, “What are you doing?"  He didn't move, his grip on Hannibal tightening as the armed men closed the distance between them, his own instinct to protect his Alpha driving him toward a rare need to attack and defend, a direct contrast to the normal Omegan urges to surrender and hide.  
  
"Even I only hold so much control over my instincts Will, if they should harm you during my arrest..."  He didn’t need to finish the sentence, Will knew he would attack and the men would be forced to fire.    
  
Not even the Ripper could win a fight against a small army armed with guns.  
  
Reluctantly, he released the fabric he'd held clenched between fingers tight enough to ruin and stepped away, his every instinct battling against his mind for having abandoned his Alpha.  
  
"On the ground Hannibal,", Jack instructed, watching as the killer slowly shifted to his knees, hands held open to his sides as he lowered himself to the ground and placed his hands over his head.  
  
They were on him in an instant; thick steal rings snapping around his wrists as every friend and colleague Hannibal knew watched in awe at his complete humiliation.  "You have the right to remain silent,” Jack began, “anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law."  A hand in his hair twisted his head back and making the Alpha grunt with discomfort as a leather mask wrapped around his face, preventing the injury to the officers by the Alpha's razer teeth, a common procedure.  
   
It wasn’t until he was standing, hands cuffed before him and mask secured that he turned to Will.  Deep maroon eyes drinking in the ocean of fear consuming his mate as he watched his Alpha prepare for escort out of the building and out of his life.  
  
Something snapped, something wild and fierce Will he hadn't realized he’d harboured, something stronger than the darkness that had bloomed with his becoming.  Forged from the fear he had known all his life and the desperation to keep something good.  Life had taken too many things form him, too many good and beautiful things from him.  He wouldn't let Hannibal be another grain of sand to slip between his fingers.    
  
He didn't make it three steps before hands were on him, fingers digging into his arms hard enough to bruise, preventing him from reaching his Alpha.  They pulled him back and he kicked, jerked his arms to throw them off and recalled his police training like an ingrained instinct to land an elbow to the officer trying to detain him and loosen their grip to twist free before the harsh crack of a baton came down across his shoulders and he was tackled to the ground.    
  
There was no warning when Hannibal twisted from the hands that held him to drive a knee into the gut of one officer and slipped from the grip of the other with a violent turn to nearly knock them to the ground, every savage instinct driving to the surface as he watched another Alpha attack his mate and pin him to the ground.  With nearly inhuman speed he swept the short distance across the floor and hurled the officer pinning Will from his back with the impact of his shoulder.  
  
Eyes savage with the promise of death he rendered a scream when the points of a Taser pinned in his back, dropping him over Will; despite his quick scramble to grab and hold the man who had fought to save him they were separated at once, Will quickly flipped to his stomach to have his hands brought  behind his back and rings of steal snapped in place as he watched his unconscious body of his Alpha dragged from the auction hall. 

OoOoO

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading~<3
> 
> Your kudos are trying to keep up with liquor orders, your comments are dancing the waltz~<3
> 
> The author is leaving for Cuba and won't be back until the next update ~(˘▾˘~)
> 
>  
> 
> _Updates will be posted Saturday 21:00pm AST._


	3. BlackMail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will and Jack have a talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hola!
> 
> I have returned from Cuba and it was a wonderful trip!
> 
> A big thank you to all my wonderful readers who have been enjoying the story thus far and to those of you leaving me kudos and comments, you know I'm always grateful to hear from you, thank you~<3 <3 <3
> 
> Now onto the story!!!
> 
> I own nothing. 
> 
> Not. Beta. Read.

Three hours, that was how long he’d been kept sitting in the quiet of the interrogation room, separated from Hannibal and isolated from anything that could be deemed either comforting or Omega friendly.  The room had been built to contain Alpha’s and other high level Beta’s, with high backed steel chairs bolted to the floor and clasping hooks made to connect to their restraining leather masks, it was obvious their design had been made for keeping the interrogating officers safe from their violence and their bite. 

The table Will had been seated at was made of the same solid steel, the heavy structure secured to the floor with iron bolts.  In its middle, an iron eye stood looped with a set of specialty cuffs awaiting use to keep the prisoners hands secured to the tables top; a secured point that had replaced the cuffs previously binding his wrists behind him.

Despite the rooms obvious design Will was neither a member of the higher genders or a high profile criminal, to what Jack knew; this only left him with one possible reason for being locked in the highly secured room.  Jack meant to alienate him.  He wanted Will to be searching for comfort and familiarity when he finally came for him; if he were any other Omega the manipulation might have worked and the sight of a familiar Alpha would have filled him with a safety and ease.  But Will wasn’t like other Omega, he could see through the farce even as he sat in the cold metal chair watching the minutes tick by.

He assumed that it was thanks to his outburst that Jack had been able to pull the necessary strings and have him placed into one of these less Omega friendly rooms.  That and he didn’t doubt some level of manipulation was being used.  The room was cool, empty and smelling of every foreign, violent alpha to have been dragged in there through the week.  He was hoping Will would respond to the warmth of a friendly, familiar Alpha easier if he’d been left to stew in the unkind environment.  But even a year ago such proceedings would have been lost on Will; the same way traditional psychiatry was lost on him.  He knew it all, understood the methods being used against him and so he was immune to them.

It didn’t help matters that there was a dying light to his left.  The long yellow florescent bulb flicking with dying life as Will sat waiting.  There was no clock in the room for him to track the passage of time, but he was wearing the watch Hannibal had given him for Christmas, his hands folded on the table in front of him and the matt black metal against his wrist for him to see.

He knew they were watching him, there would be at least two Beta’s sitting behind the one way glass observing as he sat in his chair waiting for Jack to come and question him.  If they were hoping he’d give them anything for their troubles, they were sorely mistaken.

Eyes cast toward the table and his mind dancing in the ballroom with Hannibal, he waited for Jack’s arrival. 

Three hours was when he finally stepped into the room.

It was with a calm disinterest that Will turned eyes to meet with Jack.  “Good evening Will,” He didn’t offer the same greeting as he watched the agent walk the short distance across the tiled floor to join him at the table.  “I know you have a lot to process right now, but I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

He didn’t move, didn’t comment as he watched Jack slide into the empty chair and place a manila folder on the table between them, the corner of a photo peeking from beneath the folded top.  “If you’d like me to contact your lawyer before we proceed I can bring you a phone.”

“I don’t need a lawyer.”  He answered voice as dead as his stare.

Jack wasn’t going to fight Will on any poor decisions he was about to make.  Will knew that before Jack accepted his token answer with a slight incline of head.  “I’d like to know if you’ve seen any suspicious behavior from Hannibal over your past year living with him.”  Things he wouldn’t have seen during his visits when he’d been invited as a guest to the Lecter home, things the people Hannibal surrounded himself with would miss in his disguise.

Things Will saw every day, ate and participated in.

“Suspicious?”  Will pushed for more; he wouldn’t be giving the man anything without making him work for it.

“You were my top profiler Will.  You know what I’m looking for.”  He chided lightly, “Have you seen anything that would have predicted Hannibal killing Mr. McKenzie?”  He touched the folder, ready to fight Will and his expected denial.

"I _use_ to be your top profiler,” He agreed, “you don’t think I would have brought my concerns to the authorities if I’d thought Hannibal was showing any signs of being a potential killer?”

“Most Omega’s aren’t capable of betraying their Alpha’s.”  He offered, “It’s against the loyalty of their nature to go against their mate.”  He fingered the folder, a subtle play to draw Will’s attention and interest toward its contents.

Will wasn’t interested; he knew what he’d find inside.  “I’m not like other Omega’s.  There’s a reason I went unmated for 38 years.”

“And that’s the exact reason why you would turn a blind eye.”  He turned his words against him.  “You always thought you’d be alone Will.  It would only be natural for you to want to protect him.”

“Please don’t try to psychoanalyze me Jack.”  He smiled, mocking and sardonic.  “We both know I don’t take well to that.”

“All I want are some answers Will,” dark brown met stormy blue, “answers you can provide.”  He finally slid the folder toward him.  “If you haven’t noticed any strange behavior, I believe you.  But I want you to tell me what you see.”

He smiled looking down at the thin familiar folder.  It hadn’t been nearly so long ago Jack had been sneaking those same folders out for him to flip through and illegally assist in cases he’d long been excused from.  But this wouldn’t be the same.  This wasn’t Jack asking for help, this was Jack challenging Will to look at the evidence against his mate and admit he was wrong, force him to think back over the past year and admit the peculiarities he’d seen, warning signs he should have noticed and ignored.  “I can’t work from pictures Jack.”  He answered instead without bothering to open the offered folder. 

“You looked at plenty last year.”  He reminded, watching Will as blue grey eyes turned to look from Jack and the folder to the one way glass overseeing them.

He wet his lips, looking at that tainted glass with new realization.  “No one’s watching us.”

Jack’s poker face was flawless, still and neutral, “What makes you say that?”

“You wouldn’t be having this conversation with me if there was.”  He looked back to Jack, a sudden knowledge of freedom ticking the back of his mind.  “You wouldn’t be risking the burro finding out you’d been delivering confidential documents to a civilian.”

A half-hearted laugh, he’d missed having Will around; the convenience of his particular talents when used for profiling an investigation.  “There is no one behind the glass.”  He admitted.  “This is all about you and me.”

He wet his lip, the smallest dart of tongue, and spread his hands with a shrug.  “I can’t work from pictures Jack.”  He repeated, opening the folder to point at the address scrawled on the front corner of the report.  “I’ve never been good with working from pictures.”

“You were visiting the scenes.”  It wasn’t a question, Jack quick to pick up on the implication of the pointed address.  “Well, you can look at these pictures.  I’m looking for an ID on the man.”  He tapped a photo of Thomas McKenzie, a copy of his driver’s license.  “Do you know him?  Would Hannibal?”

Will looked at the photo and shrugged.  “Hannibal knows hundreds of people.  I don’t try to keep track of his social life,” Though the name was familiar.  “But he didn’t kill this man.”  Not but because he wouldn’t, Will had witnessed him mate preform more than enough murders to know that familiarity wouldn’t spare a life.  He simply refused to believe that Hannibal would be so careless as to jeopardize them like that.

“Well apparently he did.”  Jack countered without missing a beat, “We received a call earlier this evening of a man sighted loading a body into the trunk of a Bentley.  Even gave us a license.  We ran the plate and it came back as Hannibal’s.”  He turned the page, revealing the picture Will had initially expected.  A very dead Thomas McKenzie curled in the back of Hannibal’s car next to a bundle of flowers wrapped in cellophane.  It was difficult to see with the camera glare in the photo, but if will had to guess he would have said the flowers were roses and carnations.

It made his heart skip a beat.  Hannibal wouldn’t jeopardize them like that, he refused to believe it.

“What do you really want Jack.  You can’t detain me for questioning.”  He changed the course of conversation, “So tell me what this is really about.”  He had no doubt that Hannibal had already had a lengthy discussion with Jack regarding search warrants and his car.  Will didn’t care whether they’d fallowed all the right laws while finding the body or not, he was more concerned that they’d found one at all and what they were going to do with it.

He leveled his look with Will’s, meeting the Omega who thought himself an Alpha.  “I can’t detain you for questioning.”  He agreed, or at least not for the three hours that he had held him.  “But I can detain you under suspicion of adding an abduction and murder.”

“You don’t think I’m a killer Jack,” he bit the words, “not after last year.”  Not after watching him breakdown over Hannibal’s love notes.

Silence fell between them as he eyed Will, considering the argument for his innocence.  "You're right.  I don't think you're an accomplice.”  He conceded.  “You've always been too haunted for that sort of business."  He stood, walking around the small table to unlock the silver cuffs pinching the empath’s wrists.  "What I really want is for you to look at a body."

"I was dismissed from the FBI, both in investigation and teaching." Will reminded rubbing the circulation back into his wrists as he recalled the phone call that had ended his career; if he were to pick a moment in his life that had turned him down the path of blood and carnage, that phone call was mostly likely it.  Jack had forced Will's hand to search for his own answers and bring the scene of a murder to life in his lover’s basement with the corpse of a pig. 

He could still remember the warmth of meat around his fingers and spill of liquid life down his arms as he'd pushed through organs to scoop away and empty a cavity for salad.

"You still are, this doesn't change a thing.  But I need your opinion on a body."  Will could have laughed as he rose from his chair to follow the demanding Alpha away from the interrogation room and out into the familiar Quantico halls toward the labs. 

"Where’s Hannibal?"  He asked grabbing the tail of his crooked and crumpled tie and pulled the strip of fabric free to stuff into his pocket.  It was the question he'd been itching to ask since they'd sat him in a separate car.

"He'd in an interrogation room for questioning, just like you were; but we have more than enough evidence to convict."  He said opening the door to a more than familiar lab.  Stepping over the thresh Will saw three faces he recognized instantly he’d never thought he’d see again, he hadn't seen anyone from the science team since his release.  From one catastrophe to another, first his discovery and now Hannibal's, it didn’t seem like he was meant to have a pleasant reunion with the trio.

"What evidence do you have against him?"  He caught a glance from Katz, familiar blue gloves pulled tight over slender fingers. She was someone he would have liked to see again under different circumstances, someone he’d been very close to calling a friend. He wondered if the sympathy he was reading in her dark eyes was a part of that friendship or general pity.

"That's confidential."  Jack stopped next to a medical bed, the body of the deceased lying bar on its top, no sheet protecting its decency while undergoing autopsy.  The man’s chest cavity had been emptied, the beginning of a familiar set up displayed before him.  The eyes and teeth had been removed, the hair scalped clean and the finger tips sliced away...

"So is this."  Will furrowed his brow as he examined the corpse, taking in the fine detail of each incision and the emptying of the torso.  It reminded him of so many others he'd seen the year before, the flesh peeled away to make room for delicate flower assortments.  Flowers like the blooms he’d seen lay next to the body in the trunk of the car.

A method of death he hadn't seen since accepting his mate. 

"How long dead?"  He asked, glancing back at the Alpha who'd brought him here.

"The time of death is estimated- " Price began, the Beta cut short by the sharp bark of his leader.

"That doesn't matter," Jack interrupted, "that's not something you need to know.  All I want is for you to tell me if this is the work of the Ripper or not." 

Will read between the lines; saw the real question Jack was asking.  The body wasn't 'finished' yet, an assortment of flowers still needing to replace the many missing offal, but it was a similar enough mimic to be viewed as his work.  The body had been found in the trunk of Hannibal's car, the 'love letters' having stopped shortly after Will had come to terms with his role as Hannibal's mate.

Jack wanted to know if Hannibal was the Ripper and this convenient corpse was his anniversary present. 

Or at least that was how Jack was viewing it.  They'd pulled the body from Hannibal's trunk.  Body found, method confirmed, he was going to claim capture of the Chesapeake Ripper and have Hannibal locked behind bars in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.

Except...this wasn't Hannibal's work. 

Someone was framing the Chesapeake Ripper as the Chesapeake Ripper. If the situation wasn’t so dyer, he might have laughed.

"If you want my opinion,” he began with ease, “you're going to have to put me on the case."

"Will-" He was cut short by the Omega he had demanded so easily in time gone by.

"No Jack. Not this time.  I know what you want, you know I can give it to you and I'm reading this body as easily as a book, but I'm not going to translate unless you put me on this case.  I want my job back.  Officially, on paper," He watched as skin tighten around his jaw, the quick mind of the agent contemplating just how far he could push to get what he needed, what buttons he needed to press.

"You're an Omega."  He stated as though the argument would trump anything Will could possibly offer.  "It’s prohibited for you to work law enforcement."

He shrugged, looking from the body to meet eyes with the Alpha who challenging him, "You want me to profile.  I’m willing to do it.  But only if I’m reinstated."

"This is a case against your Alpha."  He growled.

"You've already brought me in on it, Jack. I'm standing in front of the body you pulled from my Alpha’s car and you’re asking me to profile it.”  He countered, “So if you want my help on this then you're going to have to make me a part of the case.  Otherwise when I walk out of this room I'm taking your job with me."

It was a threat that had the Alpha bristling, Omega's didn’t challenge Alpha's.  They barred their throats, submitted and did as they were told.  Will wouldn't be doing that, not anymore.  He'd passed that point when Hannibal had gifted him a new world of freedom in the form of chaos and blood.  He listened to his Alpha now and his Alpha alone.  He wouldn’t be threatened, manipulated or pushed around.  No matter how many submissive forcing hormones were pumped into the air by an enraged Alpha.  "Did you just threaten me?"

"It's not a threat Jack.  I have three witness’ standing around me that you just showed me, a civilian Omega whose mate is up on murder charges, a brutalized corpse.”  He almost laughed, words laced with black humor, “And not just any corpse, the evidence against my Alpha.”  He emphasized the words, making sure the weight of the situation sank in.  “So this is how it's going to be, either you put me on this case and I'll pin you a killer, or when I walk out that door it'll be to go straight to the Deputy Assistant Director."  Not a threat, a threat held the possibility of being empty.  This was a promise.  Either he was on this case, despite circumstances, or he was going to ruin Jack's life.

"I'll see what I can do."  Jack answered with measure.

"Not good enough.”  He wouldn’t give him the chance to turn this all against him.  Not this time.  “I agreed to that the last time you had me look at a body and you ended it all with a call.  I'm on or you’re out."  There would be no compromises, no faith on words alone.  He’d learned that lesson the hard way.

It only left Jack with one choice.  "Fine, I'll make it happen.  But I'll need Hannibal to sign a permission form if you're going to be allowed in the field."  He would have lie regarding his participation on which case, but it would put Will back on the pay roll.  "Do you think he'll agree to that?  We just had him arrested.  I don’t see Lecter letting you back on the force."

"Give me the paper."  He took another long look at the body provided, the hollowed sockets like dark endless voids, "I'll get him to sign."

"Fine, now tell me what you see."  Jack pointed to the corpse once more, demanding, ready to push Will for everything he had. 

"No Jack, not yet."  He had what he needed, at least from this kill.  "First I want to see my name on paper.  As soon as you give me a copy of my employment contract I’ll give you everything I can see on the body.  But I'm not letting you shaft me twice."  Not when it was at the risk of losing Hannibal, losing everything.

This was one thing he wasn't about to let life take away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading~<3
> 
> Your kudos are playing with the science equipment and blowing things up, your comments are checking all the rooms for angry cannibals.
> 
>  
> 
> _Updates will be posted Saturday 12:00pm AST._


	4. Copycat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hannibal and Jack strike a deal over Will.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovely readers~<3
> 
> I once again thank everyone who's been taking the time to leave me wonderful comments and kudo the work, its always nice to know the story is being enjoyed and another thank you to my silent readers who click the 'next' button, I appreciate you taking the time to read~<3
> 
> On with the story!!! 
> 
> I own nothing!
> 
> Not Beta Read.

Hannibal was still bound when Will entered the room, not that he should have expected much else with the heavy security placed against Alpha’s.  His handsome face hidden beneath the rough leather of a mask meant to protect Will from the very teeth that had rendered his flesh and bound them as one.  
  
It was a sight that had haunted his nightmares before and one Hannibal had reassured him he’d never see.  
  
He wished he could un-see it now.  
  
Hannibal hadn’t been expecting Will when the door to the small quiet room swung open.  His keen maroon eyes telling as much as Will crossed the floor and took the seat across from him.  He’d been expecting Jack, presumably with the lawyer he refused to answer questions without the presence of.  
  
Instead he saw Will looking tired and drained, it made a need to reassure and comfort stir deep within him.  A desire he his restraints denied.  
  
For Will it was as though he’d stepped into the past, crawled back into the skin he’d thought he’d left behind with his rebirth as a monster.  But sitting across from Hannibal, chained and bound in the custody of police and under suspicion of being the Ripper; it brought all the fear that had once shed away back to consume him in a tidal wave.  
  
"Good evening, Will."  Hannibal greeted, voice calm and steady as though they sat across from one another at the dinner table and not the heavy steel bolted to the interrogation room floor.  Though his hands were still bound in cuffs behind his back the mask had yet to be linked to the chair, it was a small courtesy Will knew would disappear once Jack had him convicted.  A thought he’d rather not dwell on.  
  
His once neat ashen hair was dishevelled, a haphazard mess laying over his forehead, his jacket rumpled and his bowtie crooked.  Will knew it was bothering him, the disorderly appearance, a little normalcy that Will could appreciate despite circumstances.  
  
"Good evening, Hannibal," he stepped around the table, ignoring the warnings given by Jack prior to his entry to keep his distance from the Alpha, and placed a sheet face down upon its surface.  He ignored the page for now, far more interested in the man he knew would stay his wrath from him.  Standing to face his mate Will combed his fingers through his mess of hair, it wasn't the brush Hannibal would prefer, but it smoothed the scattered strands into something more desired by the doctor with each comb through locks he worked to memorize the feel of.  "Jack seems to believe you killed Mr. McKenzie."  He moved his attention to the jacket next, adjusting the collar and smoothing the fabric before popping the buttons to allow Hannibal to wear it in the more relaxed fashion he preferred when sitting.  
  
“Thank you,” He lifted his jaw and Will moved his attention to that of the tie, stormy eyes falling to meet with deep maroon and search them for every ounce of truth to have been shared between them.  "I did not kill my tailor."  He stated plainly and Will needed no more reassurance to know it for the truth it was.  He could feel it, the sense of perplexed irritation to who had framed him as himself, who had thought to kill in Hannibal's name.  "Nor do I know who has or why."  
  
Will nodded, adjusting the bowtie to lie straight across his throat, his touch falling to linger over his Alpha's chest and feel the heat of flesh hidden beneath cotton.  He wanted it gone, he wanted him home and safe and in his arms where he could keep him to himself like a secret.  "I've seen the body."  More words Hannibal hadn’t wanted to hear that evening.  Another trespass against him and one Jack would one day know the pain for.  
  
"I don't recall signing any weavers permitting your participation in profiling a body."  He said to while as his attention turned to the one-way glass he knew Jack to be watching from behind.    
  
"He asked for my help on the case."  Will moved the conversation forward, he needed Hannibal’s cooperation and getting Jack fired would do nothing to earn the Ripper’s freedom.  His attention returned from the one-way glass to the empath in front of him. "With your consent I'd like to accept."  
  
Tension thickened the room as an unvoiced request for trust passed from Will to Hannibal through their bond like a trickle of warmth slipping between their minds, "Wouldn't that be a conflict of interest for you William?"  Hannibal pushed, he needed more, something beyond the blind faith Will was asking from him for his cooperation in the matter of signing over his Omega to another Alpha.  For Jack to hold any control over what was rightfully his while he was incarcerated-held, bound and kept-made the darkness he kept within bellow.  
  
"It is," he couldn't say more, not with Jack watching, "but Jack thinks I can help and so do I."  I can free you.  
  
"Jack believes that you will be the key to proving me guilty.”  He tasted his other name through their bond, the curl of Ripper through his mind like smoke on the wind.  He’d yet to see the pictures, yet to be questioned by the officer himself, a request for his lawyers presence preventing Jack from anything beyond holding him until such a time that his legal aid could arrive.  But at least now he knew the stakes, if Jack suspected him of his true nature, he would do everything in his power to keep Hannibal behind bars and see the Ripper brought to justice at last.  “Do you honestly believe you can be objective about this, Will?"  
  
Of all the time he'd known him, Will continued to be the one element in his life he could not yet entirely predict, a wild card that kept him on his toes and made his life a little more interesting.  
  
"I do."  Hannibal was a gamble worth placing every chip in the pot.  "I want to do this.  I want you to let me do this."  I want you to trust me with this.  
  
Neither spoke and Will felt his heart begin to race, he needed this, he needed Hannibal to trust him, to let him have this and find a way to save him.  It was no small request from the Alpha who sought control in all that he did and as Will felt the seeking essence of his mate reaching through their bond he opened himself to feel it move through him.  He was seeking reassurance that Will knew what he was doing and Will was begging him for trust.  
  
He had nothing to offer him but determination and blind hope.  He would set Hannibal free; he just didn’t know how he was going to do it yet.  
  
One foot slid forward, the toe of his show touching to Will’s in the only contact he could create between them with his bindings, the only small comfort he could offer with the swirl of reassurance he tried to sooth him with through their bond.  
  
Will needed his blind faith.  
  
He would give it to you.  
  
"I'll sign the form."  It was more than his permission, it was his absolute trust.  
  
"Thank you."  He kissed the grating of the mask and almost felt the ghost of thin lips pressing back against his own, almost tasted the heat of his breath and salt of his skin.  It was the last kiss they would share for longer than Will wished to think about.  
  
They were interrupted before they could finish, Will startled back from the mouth he craved as the door swung open and Jack and Katz entered the quickly crowding room.  "I told you to keep at arm’s length Will."  Jack reminded, encouraging the Omega to step back from his Alpha with a simple hand gesture before flipping the sheet Will had set before him to reveal a finely printed contract and set a pen by its side.  "Dr. Lecter,” he addressed, bringing the full attention of those calculating maroon eyes to himself, they were far more intense then he’d ever known them to be while sitting at his table, “though we heard your verbal agreement to permit Will back into Investigation, I still require a signature."  
  
"You mean for me to sign a weaver freeing you of any accountability to Will and his health should something unfortunate happen during his time under your care in the field."  Hannibal didn’t need to read the contract to know the man was freeing himself from whatever obligation could pin him to Will and any future law suits Hannibal might pursue, but he turned to read the small printing of the legal document all the same.  
  
"He will be recruited as though he were a Beta, it’s nearly the same as the contract he signed when we thought he actually was a Beta.”  Jack corrected, “He’d be no responsibility of mine or any other member on the force."  He gave Katz a look and the woman who’d remained silent during the tense conversation moved forward, changing the cuffs from those binding his wrists behind Hannibal’s back to those secured to the tables top.  
  
Taking the paper in hand he read it again, scrutinizing the fine ebony print dictating the activities, responsibilities and safety of his Omega for the foreseeable future, "I would like to speak to my lawyer in regards to this contract before signing."  He decided at last, placing the page back to the table’s surface and straightening the pen perfectly by its side.  "Before I sign over the rights to my Omega I'd like to be sure there will be no abuse of his mental or physical wellbeing; especially considering your personal record in his regard."  
  
Jack was done playing games, "Will’s wellbeing is no longer any concern of yours Hannibal.  If you were concerned for your mate you should have thought about that prior to killing Mr. McKenzie."  
  
"Will is my concern so long as we're bound,” His voice was flat, nearly toneless as he addressed the man he would make a point of eating upon his escape, “and I am his charge until a judge and jury of my peers decide otherwise.”  But they would always be bound, no force on the planet able to take that away.  “You hold me under the suspicion of murder, Jack.  I retain my rights as Will’s Alpha until such a time as I am found guilty, sentenced and those rights are revoked."  
  
"Alright," he conceded, "Will is your Omega and you have every right to see to his wellbeing," he said slipping his hands into jacket pockets, relaxed despite circumstances, "but I’m afraid I have to consider your concern for Will as concern for an accomplice."  There was the move Will had been waiting for since blackmailing Jack.  He would force Hannibal's hand and proceed or Will would be locked up until both their names were cleared.  
  
Maroon eyes flashed with something dangerous, a peek of the monsters kept expertly hidden beneath the mask, "You are trying to manipulate me into signing over my mate."  
  
"Keeping Will under surveillance would only be following protocol, suspecting him as an accomplice, forced or otherwise, would be the right choice here Hannibal."  But he trusted Will and he needed him.    
  
Jack took Will's previous position next to the Ripper, staring down into those dangerous eyes, "You signing Will over to me for the duration of your incarceration, however brief,” and despite appearances, despite the relief it would bring him to at last have the Ripper behind bars, he did hope Hannibal’s stay would be brief, if only for Will’s sake, “is the safest thing for him."  He picked up the pen, paying it back over the presented contract.  "It keeps him off the records and out of detainment."  
  
Will could feel his furry, the twisted darkness curling through him as Jack made to corner him.  He would not be gulled so easily, "No one will take charge of William during the time of my incarceration but William."  He looked to the paper again, scanned the wording and took the pen in hand, scratching several words to replace with his own, dating and initialing each change before turning the revised paper toward the other Alpha present.  "He will be treated and considered as though he were an Alpha.  He will act entirely on his own for all actions and decisions in regard to himself and his wellbeing with no obligation for his safety or wellbeing falling to anyone other than himself.  If you date and initial these changes,” He turned the pen back toward the officer, “I will release Will from my care entirely until the time of my release."  
  
Will's heart skipped a beat as he was given more than asked for.  
  
Watching Jack read and initial each of those changes, Hannibal taking the pen to scrawl his name in perfect curls of ink on paper, freedom had never felt more condemning.  
  
"I haven't agreed to any of this."  Will said as the pen and contract were taken from Hannibal as though it didn't carry the weight of Will’s life within it.  
  
"You said you could be objective about this Will, are you having second thoughts?"  He wasn’t challenging him, he was reminding him of his choice, of the trust he had asked for and Hannibal was giving him.  "Our bond is not broken Will, so long as you are my Omega and I your Alpha they cannot revoke visitation."  
  
"What he can't do,” Jack added, “is forbid you from entering a crime scenes or object to your participation during an investigation."  
  
He kept his eyes on Hannibal's.  "What about my heat?"  Short of placing himself back on suppressants, sooner or later he would need his Alpha.  
  
"We'll cross that bridge when we get there."  Though sympathetic to Will’s situation, he still wanted as little interaction between the profiler and Hannibal until after the trial.  As it was his visitations would need to be supervised, something he would address with Will at a later time.    
  
"That will be your choice, they can’t prohibit you from seeking out your mate during your cycle, but the privacy of it will depend on the holding cell they’re containing Hannibal in.”  Katz shrugged when Jack gave her a look, “What?  You’re already breaking all the rules letting him in on the case Jack, I’m not about to lie to him about what rights he still has with his mate.”  He signed, but let it slide and Beverley continued, “If it’s suspected that Hannibal is a danger to your wellbeing a guard may be present during the mating, but generally those rooms are private."  Meaning it would be a room similar to the cells used for solitary confinement, not that there wouldn’t be cameras.  That depended on the state and laws of ‘Observation for Safety and Procedure for Heat’.    
  
The thought of a camera was bad enough, the idea of someone watching them made his stomach twist; someone sitting in the room with them, watching their most private moments, the consummation of their bond, heart of their connection.  
  
It was still better than having no connection with Hannibal at all.  He nodded, taking one last look at his mate before turning to leave.  It wasn’t the image he wanted to remember him by, but it was the one that would drive him forward.  
  
OoOoO  
  
He was standing in front of the body again.  Staring down at the man he could vaguely remembering measuring his inseam once a few months back.  He didn’t look much like himself anymore, not with his thin greying hair peeled away to leave nothing but skull and the gentle hazel eyes scooped out to leave empty sockets behind.    
  
Will didn’t remember much about his visit that day, but he remembered the man having a candy dish on the side of his counter.  A couple of kids had popped in during his sizing on their way home from school, bags on their shoulders, each one grabbing a piece of sea salt toffee with a wave to the man who could have been the friendly neighbour or grandfather to one of them before heading back out of the little shop.  
  
He felt more for the kids than he did to the old man lying dead on a slab.  
  
"Do you trust my judgment Jack?"  He asked without looking up, his sight fixed on the endless voids of McKenzie's empty eyes.    
  
"Right now?”  He was standing behind him, just close enough to be encroaching on personal space, “I’d like to."  
  
"But?"  He prompted when Jack didn’t continue.  
  
"But you're profiling for your mate,” He closed the short distance to stand beside him, face him even as Will continued to face the corpse.  “It’s a lot of pressure.  I just don’t know if you’re in the saddle."  
  
"I can handle it."  He didn't have a choice.  
  
He motioned to the body but didn’t turn his sight from Will, "Tell me what you see."  He was observing just as much as the Omega he had profiling was, Will was reading the body, and he was reading Will.  
  
"You're not going to like my answer."  He smiled wirily.  
  
Will was right, "You don't think this is the Ripper?"  He didn't like his answer, not with such a perfect mimic of what had transpired a year ago lying directly in front of them.  He would have said it was too perfect if Hannibal didn’t fit the bill so well.  
  
"No I don't."    
  
"Then you're right, I don't like that answer.  You wanna tell me why this isn't the Ripper?"  
  
"Because Will doesn't want to admit he's been mated to a psychopathic serial killer for the past year."  Zeller cut in, reminding the pair that there were three others present.  "No finger prints, no scalp, eyes, and organs missing."  He wasn't trying to be cruel; he was trying to keep the team on track.  "This screams Ripper."  
  
“Especially once you bring in the MO.”  It was Katz this time, “Sorry Will, but those killings went on while you and Hannibal were adjusting to each other, and now nearly a year later we’re finding another one?  In the same style?  You said last year that this was the Ripper.”  
  
“Bit of a gruesome anniversary present.  I would have stuck to just the flowers.”  Price offered his own two cents, from where he stood to their side dusting the body for prints.  
  
Will rubbed his eyes with a tired hand, "Last year it was the Ripper and the killings stopped shortly after Tattle Crime announced my being seen with my psychiatrist.”  It had actually been the article to push Will over the edge and preform his second killing.  It had been one thing for the woman to work on ruining his life; it was another when she had brought Hannibal into it.   Their sudden ousting had nearly cost Hannibal his licence.  “But regardless that still doesn’t make Hannibal the Ripper and this a Ripper victim.”  He still needed to prove Hannibal’s innocence, but disproving him as the Ripper came first.  
  
"This is an imitation,” he turned to Jack and the trio, “I know it looks strikingly similar, but for all the care that’s been placed into this,” and there had been, someone had been very careful to follow procedure as close to Hannibal’s as they possibly could without the convenience of his saw variety and refrigeration in the secret half of his basement, “it’s not the Ripper.”  
  
"You’re telling me you think Hannibal is a copycat?"  Jack offered.  
  
"No, I think Hannibal is being framed by a copycat."  He waved a hand at the body, "I'm more than familiar with my 'love letters' from last year, this isn't one of them."  He motioned to the hands, “The finger tips were cut off of this man, the Ripper use to carefully remove the flesh from the entire hand, bleach the bones white, this I comparison is sloppy.”  He moved their attention to the abdomen, “and look at the incision."  He pointed to the flesh that had been torn away, "This man was opened with what looks like a serrated blade, there are nicks on the bone of his ribs where the blade got too close.  The Ripper would never have presented this kind of work as his 'art'.  He took too much pride in the perfection of each piece and its presentation.  This isn’t him."  
  
"Even if you don’t believe this is the Ripper you can't dismissed Hannibal entirely.  The evidence against him is too strong at this time."  He wasn't scolding, there was firmness and underlying understanding in his voice for the man he had once called friend.  "I need you to stay objective about this Will.  If you can't then you're no good to me."  
  
No good to Jack and no good to Hannibal.  
  
"Alright," Will agreed, "then regardless of whoever killed Mr. McKenzie, this still isn't the Ripper."  He looked to the body again, "This is a copycat, a very, very good copycat."  
  
One he was going to have to find if he wanted to free Hannibal.  
  
OoOoO

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading~<3
> 
> Your kudos are licking finger print samples, your comments are stealing handcuffs keys to set Hannibal free.
> 
> Hannibal is thinking of all the different dishes he can make from Jack when he finally gets out of prison.
> 
>  
> 
> _Updates to be posted Saturday 12:00pm AST._


	5. Unexpected Allies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hannibal doesn't like prison food.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy sappy love day everyone!!! 
> 
> I have plans tomorrow because my family flew here without notice and decided to tell me about it today. I have no idea how busy I'm going to be tomorrow but I don't want to forget to update this and ruin my record of being on time so you're getting it early! Huzzah!
> 
> Another thank you to everyone who is still reading the story and enjoying it, I love all of your comments and kudos, they let make me happy as a kitten on catnip! 
> 
> On with the fic~<3
> 
> I own nothing!!!
> 
> Not Beta Read.

Illuminated by the crystal lighting of chandeliers and surrounded by the centuries old golden walls of a grand ballroom Will had never seen they were dancing, moving over polished tiles to the music of an unseen composer.  "This is beautiful," Will told him as they turned, his feet still unsure in their steps, following Hannibal as he moved them together as on, "where are we?"  
  
"The great assembly hall of the royal castle in Warsaw," Hannibal explained spinning the beautiful Omega to pull back in against him, very nearly making him stumble.  "Perhaps I shall take you there one day."  Another flourish of movement and the Ripper was dipping him, the profiler leaning back with the guidance of an arm and all his trust not to be fumbled and dropped.    
  
It was a setting lovely in all the ways their evening had meant to be and hadn't been.  
  
"Maybe," he said, brought back to his feet without incident, "I've never really left the country other than the great lakes bordering Canada and a few cases that brought me over the border into Mexico.  I've never been much for travel."  The melody ended, its last few notes dying in an echo though the glimmering room.  "You think my first trip outside of the country should be to Poland?"  His hand was on Hannibal's arm now, the pair stepping off of the grand dance floor to find a table lined with champagne and small bite sized hors-d’oeuvre Hannibal knew as intimately as the man at his side.  
  
"Perhaps not Poland, I've always been rather fond of Florence, lovely city."  They were sipping Blanc de Noir now, crystal glasses in hand and delicate smiles.  Will looked beyond words, dressed in the sleek fitted black of his suit to contrast the untamable corkscrews of scattered curls and bright stormy blue eyes.    
  
He was everything Hannibal wanted and more.  
  
"Doctor Lecter," The quiet voice of the orderly called him from the sanctuary of his mind palace, dimming the golden glow of chandelier crystal lights to buzzing florescent and silencing the hum of classical music to the madness of the institute.    
  
He took a shallow breath, needlessly steadying his nerves before opening his eyes to the world he had left behind and the dingy cage he had been locked within, "you're dinner, when you're ready."  He uncrossed his legs, sitting up from the lumpy, stale smelling mattress he'd lain upon.  It was becoming routine for him now, escaping his imprisonment by receding into his mind palace.  
  
A necessity thanks to the brutality of his crime, the violence against Mr. McKenzie placing him in the Baltimore State Hospital for The Criminally Insane instead of the state prison.  
  
The fresh hell that was his incarceration only continued with the conversations and 'therapy' being provided to him by Dr. Frederic Chilton himself, listening to the man prattle a level of torture in itself.  He did himself no favors during those conversations, correcting the man in his methods and psychoanalysing him in return with far more ease than Chilton was managing with him.  
  
"Thank you Mr. Brown," he said walking the short distance to sliding wall drawer used to deliver his every need.  A security feature they simply had no idea yet how badly they needed.  He would make sure to Chilton truly understood the meaning of the word ‘psychopath’ when he was released, and he would be released.  One way or another, he would see himself out of confinement.  
  
Accepting the tray from the rolling drawer he brought his meal to the small table and chair bolted to the floor and took a seat at the ugly structure as though he were sitting to dine in his own lavish dining room; the flimsy plastic utensils held and handled as though they were finely polished silverware.  
  
It was as he examined the overcooked liver drowning in tin gravy and instant potatoes he noted the orderly had yet to leave and set his cutlery to the trays side, offering the quite man his full attention.  "Is there something you wish to address with me?"  
  
"Guess I'm a little star struck."  He said with a partial smile as he took in the Ripper, "Bit of a fan."  He admitted.  
  
"Are you?"  And wasn't that interesting?  He rose from his seat, smoothing the fabric of his jumpsuit as though it were a suit and approached the bars, stopping to look at the man on the other side as though the space between them was an allowance for polite distance and not an enforced space placed by iron bars.  "Tell me what it is that you are a fan of."  
  
"You're work."  He said and there was a sudden light to his eyes, a spark hidden in their depths he had found in Will’s own when lost in the heart of their madness, elbows deep in the warm moving flesh of a body.  
  
"Dr. Frederic Chilton is a fine Psychiatrist also," not true, “and one not currently being held accused of murder.  You may find your appreciations better held in his regard.”  
  
He shook his head, smile widening, "Not that work, though you’re a better shrink than he is, I’m talking about your 'hobby'."  
  
"Ah," His head angled ever so slightly, taking in the lean muscled man before him as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other like a nervous child under his scrutinizing gaze.  "You mean you're a fan of the Ripper.  Aren't you concerned about confessing such things while under surveillance?"  
  
He shrugged one shoulder and the mildly awkward social gesture nearly reminded him of Will, "I control the audio and cameras.”  He explained.  “They're off.  I'll loop the last few minutes of footage and Chilton will never know."  
  
"I see," He was already calculating the new piece onto his chess board, setting the mysterious pawn on the boards side, his linage yet to be decided.  "You are a fan of the Ripper."  
  
"You don't trust me," he wasn't insulted, "I understand.  If I was in your position I’d be cautious too."  
  
"Tell me Mr. Brown," even if he were lying, he was making things interesting, the Beta offering stimulation for his stagnating mind.  He would need to have his mail re-directed and open a number of subscriptions if Will's investigation to prove his innocence was to take much longer.  "Why is it that you're risking so much in coming to me with your interest?"  
  
That grin was wide now, broad and telling as he stepped forward, nearly touching the bars, "Because I think I can help you."  
  
OoOoO  
  
You need your sleep Will  
  
He could almost hear him, the melodic voice of the man who wasn't in their bed warming his side; could almost smell him, the warm musk of his scent blending with Will's; almost feel the ghost of hands smoothing over his sides as he quieted for bed.  Almost, but Hannibal wasn't in their bed.  Neither was Will.  
  
He couldn't even be in the room.  
  
After finally signing his name across a dotted line detailing his new employment as an independent Alpha/Omega Special Agent-didn't that print look strange on his new badge?-Jack had all but demanded Will open his doors for an intimate home investigation without a warrant.  
  
It was his home as much as it was Hannibal's and to deny entry now that he was on the case and preaching his mates innocence with blind faith would bring nothing but suspicion of his being an accessory and leave distrust between Jack and himself.  Being put on dummy duties to keep in the case but away from anything useful was far more dangerous to Hannibal than letting the officer into his home and risking the discovery of their Kill Room.  
  
"It shouldn't be a problem, not if he has nothing to hide."  Jack's winning words still rang clear in his ears.  It was nearly five days since the raid and his home still didn't smell the same.  
  
He'd opened his doors to the police force and watched as several dozen officers tagged and bagged half of what they owned in the hopes of finding the key piece of evidence needed to put the Ripper away.  Will had never been so happy to have a mate with undiagnosed OCD.  A place for everything and everything in its place, a sterile kitchen and an immaculate home, Hannibal kept his linens in the closet, knifes in the block and murder weapons in the kill room.  
  
Nothing, at least so far, had been found and nothing would be so long as they didn’t bother testing the meat in the fridge.  
  
Their bedroom no longer smelled like the sanctuary it was meant to be, the strongest point of their blended scents now tarnished with the odor of nearly a dozen others.  It didn't help to have two empty closets keeping him company either, every stitch of clothing, both his and Hannibal's, confiscated for examination.    
  
It had forced him to pursue a shopping trip he'd hated more than braving the crowds during Christmas.  He'd bought two packs of underwear, one pack of socks, sneakers, two pairs of jeans, three shirts, night wear and a jacket.  All from Target.  Hannibal would burn them as soon as he got home and the thought brought the smallest of smiles to the otherwise anxious Omega, he hopped when he got a chance to visit him in prison he’d notice the change in clothes and comment on it.  
  
Heaving a sigh in the darkened guest room Will felt the comfort of a cold nose press against his cheek for his efforts.  Winston making himself known to the man lost in his thoughts.  "I'm okay," he told the concerned dog, fingers following the trail of soft warm fur to scratch behind a floppy ear.  The movement seemed to be enough to call attention to his being awake, a small happy dog waddling up the plush coverings to push his head under Will's arm in his own demands for attention.  The small smile grew as the pack began to rouse with the movement of Buster and each dog began to squirming across the double bed seeking their master’s attention.    
  
He laughed for the first time since the charity auction and gave up on the sleep that had been evading him entirely to pay attention to the needy dogs.  He hadn't been playing with them as much lately, not nearly as much as he should have been, needed to be with so many dogs, and they were calling him out on his shit at five in the morning for it.  "I don't think I'm getting back to sleep anyway," he told Buster as he tried to wash his face with a lolling tongue.  "You wanna go to the park instead?"  Wasn't that a trick Hannibal would love?  They were gone, all seven dogs bounding off the bed and out the door toward the stairs.  
  
Throwing back fur saturated covers Will found his jeans from yesterday and pulled on a clean sleeping shirt before following the excited pack downstairs to grab his jacket, shoes and a frisbee.  There was a park not too far from the house, it wasn't a dog park but was friendly enough to anyone who had a leash and cleaned up after their pet.  At five in the morning Will wasn't worrying himself with trying to tie on seven dogs and walked down the quiet sidewalk behind them toward the large park and paved walking trail in the quiet, if cold, night air.  It was getting crisp now in the evenings; the November chill letting Will know he'd need to pick up a sweater if he didn't want to catch pneumonia  
  
Hard plastic in hand, fingers chilled against the night wind, Will flung the frisbee out into the night and smiled as seven dogs raced after it into the darkness.  He watched them go for a minute, chasing after each other as they raced for the red disk, and started walking again.  Watching his pack play in the quiet of the dark and listening to the sounds of crickets and night birds, it was possibly the clearest his mind had been all week, soothing in a way Wolf Trap had been when he’d lived out in the middle of nowhere and could walk out into the night without a second look from his neighbours.    
  
He felt the brush of a head under his hand and the edge of drool slicked plastic, smiling still he took the disc from the victorious pooch with a scratch behind the ears and tossed it again before continuing his stroll.  "What's the evidence against him?"  Will asked himself, it was as good a time as any to work on the case and a clear mind would be a better asset for drawing conclusions, “They found the body in the car trunk, but there were no signs of forced entry into the Bentley," one of the first things he'd had Jack check.  "But Hannibal had his key and I have mine.  No spare."  He took the slobbered disc again and gave it another throw, "there were no prints on the body, no hand spread.  Whoever killed McKenzie whipped him down to remove any possible prints when they were done."  Another toss, "Knocked out by blunt force trauma to the back of the head, the killer gutted him alive, possibly unconscious given the estimated timing between wounds..."  But that was where the trail ended.  
  
No evidence would be found against Hannibal on his clothing, not with the plastic body suits he always wore, and nothing would be found on the kitchen knives that had been taken, everything Hannibal used for killing was stored in their kill room, a portion of the basement kept refrigerated and separate from the rest, only accessible through a trap door in the wine cellar.  He'd been lucky during the search that no one had thought to investigate that room further, the team brought in for printing and investigation had taken one look in the temperature controlled room and left it alone.  It was the one room Will had actually been concerned about and the one thing to have given him some sense of relief during the entire of the investigation.    
  
He threw the disc again and turned his mind back to the evidence present.    
  
The killer had gotten into the car and planted a body nearly the same as those gifted to Will the previous year.  Start from the beginning, how did they do it?  
  
"They planted a body, but they didn't pick the lock."  Meaning they had to have a key, but both he and Hannibal had their keys, "Bentley keys can't be cut at a store, they're transponder chipped.  The killer would have needed someone to either program another key and make a duplicate or remove the chip from one of ours."  He stopped, fishing the key ring from his pocket to look at the old 1998 Bentley key still dangling from the chain next to his old Volvo.  He didn't like driving the Bentley; barely used it other than when Hannibal was taking him out, Will preferred to use his old car that was generally kept hidden in the garage.  Over the past year he might have used the Bentley a total ten times.  
  
If someone were to switch his key, he would never know.  
  
"Shit."  He took the slobber coated frisbee in hand and gathered the frolicking beasts with a whistle, turning the group back around and toward the house.  "Two weeks ago someone tried to break in through the side window."  He swallowed hard, his throat suddenly dry with realization as he walked around the house and through the hedges growing along its side.  They'd heard the window break and the dogs had started barking from the backyard, Will had thought they’d scared the robber away, not many men wanting to take on a pack of dogs.  
  
But what if the break was to cover up their already having broken in?  Will had replaced the broken window from the inside, sliding out the glass and aluminum frame to slip in a new one from the inside so he wouldn’t have to fight with the hedging.  Neither man had thought to call in the attempted robbery because neither had cared.  Hannibal welcomed any poor fool crazy enough to walk into his house unannounced.  They wouldn't be walking out.  
  
Now as Will crouched in the soil with branches scratching at his face, using his phone as a light, he could see the imprint of a boot and a piece of glass he hadn't expected.  A perfect circle that had been dropped and forgotten in the dirt, it would have made a hole large enough for a man to fit his hand through and flip the lock, slide the window open.  The rest of the glass had been broken by a rock, scattering glass into the house when the window was smashed through.  They hadn't noticed the oddly shaped shards when cleaning the floor at four in the morning.  
  
The killer had been in their house and neither of them had known.  
  
They had framed Hannibal as the Ripper with a gift.  
  
Will tasted bile as a new realization came to him, one he didn't want to think about and couldn't ignore.  
  
The killer was starting his courting all over again.    
  
Only this time it wasn't Hannibal.  
  
Shaking in the darkness under the window, lost in horror of his thoughts Will never saw the shadow that followed him home.  
  
OoOoO  
  
TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading~<3
> 
> Your kudos are throwing frisbees for puppies, your comments are drunk on champagne. 
> 
> The author is watching from the bushes to see who the shadowy figure might be.
> 
>  
> 
> _Updates to be posted Saturday 12:00pm AST._


	6. False Heat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will decides he needs to speak with Hannibal in private and finds a way to do it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello darlings~<3
> 
> I hope you've been enjoying the story thus far, I think we're finally getting to the part a number of you have been waiting for~<3
> 
> With nothing of value to offer in opening, lets get on with the fic!!!
> 
> I own nothing.
> 
> Not Beta Read.

"I need my key to the Bentley checked.  I think it might have been tampered with or switched."  Will said as soon as Jack answer the phone.  He turned the small black and silver key over in hand wondering how many times he’d actually driven Hannibal’s car.  How often had his Alpha requested he leave his Volvo home and take the Bentley instead?  Or offer to replace the old car and have it removed from the property indefinitely?  The offer for replacement was more a standing threat to buy him something nice and new and have the Volvo towed to the dump.  Will was fairly certain it was only the standing argument of dander and dog smell that kept the beater safe and out of the junk yard.  
  
"Why?"  Will didn’t have to see Jack to know the Alpha was rubbing sleep from his eyes as he slipped from the bedroom so not to disturb his sleeping mate, the sound of his voice more irritation toward the disturbance of his sick Omega than being roused at six thirty in the morning by his prized profiler.  
  
"Nearly two weeks ago our window was broken in the middle of the night,” Our, not mine, not yet.  He’d hold onto the house belonging to the both of them, to Hannibal, as long as he could.  If the court deemed Hannibal guilty-a train of thought he tried desperately not to think about-and the land and house and everything in it fell to Will he knew he’d have to sell it.  “The dogs scared the vandal away before they could do much more than put a rock through the glass.  I replaced the window and Hannibal decided the attack wasn't worth reporting."  He wished he had it on better record now.  
  
A tired sigh sounded through the phone, Jack most likely giving up on the notion of going back to bed and settling his mind toward an early cup of coffee as he listened to Will explain.  Will knew it had to sound as though he was grasping for straws, too desperate to let go of an illusionary innocence and see the truth of his mate for whom and what he really is.  “I assume you’re going somewhere with this.”  Jack urged him to continue with something more relevant then sleep deprived suspicion.  
  
"I found a circle of cut glass in the hedge next to the window Jack, along with a half decent foot print in the dirt."  His mouth was dry as he looked at the blatant evidence of a stalker.    
  
"You should have mentioned this sooner."  
  
Will looked at the circle of glass once more before leaving it where he’d found I, nervous fingers combing through loose curls as he turned to watch an early morning jogger finish stretching on the side of the road before jogging on.  It made him miss Hannibal a little more, the cannibalistic serial killer having a running route of his own to follow twice a week between his regular swimming.  He wondered if he should cancel his membership to the gym.  "I've had a lot on my mind.”  
  
"Too much on your mind?"  Will heard the quiet sip of coffee though the phone line, a slurp of someone trying to sample a still too hot beverage, and hoped it burned his tongue.    
  
"Nothing I can't handle."  
  
"Would you tell me if you couldn't?"  
  
"Would you let me back out if it was any other case if I couldn't?"  
  
Several long seconds passed before Jack spoke again, both men knowing from experience the truth behind the Omega’s words.  "I just need you to stay in the saddle Will.  You're useless to me and you're useless to Lecter if you can't keep your head."  Will had been wondering how long it would be before Jack started his manipulations to keep Will guilt focused and in the game.  
  
"I've worked under worse circumstances Jack.  You had me profiling after I’d been ousted as an Omega and was being pursued by the Ripper.  I'll manage."    
  
"Good.”  Either he didn’t need much convincing or he was only putting up enough resistance to say he had tried if things started going south, “I’m counting on you, I’ve put a lot on the line trusting you."  
  
"I know."  And wasn't that trust poorly placed?  "Do you think you can get a couple guys to come out here and take a look?"  
  
"I'll give the team call.  You touch with any of the evidence?"  
  
"I picked up the circle before I realized what it was.  You'll have to check it against my prints.  Part of my shoe print is in the dirt where I crouched to find it.  Not too close to the other though.  You'll be able to tell them apart."  
  
"You're sure that print in the dirt isn't yours or Lecter's?  Do you have a hired gardener or any housekeeping that might have made the print?"  Jack pressed looking for anything Will might be missing with his thoughts divided.  
  
"Hannibal manages his own gardening and I shear the shrubs myself.  No housekeeping,” There had been a gardener once upon a time, someone Hannibal had stop by twice a month to mow the lawn, weed the garden and trim the hedge; but Will had gotten bored and didn’t like having another unfamiliar body around doing menial tasks, too use to being left alone in his small home in Wolf Trap to have strangers roaming around the outdoor garden.  After a short conversation he’d convinced Hannibal to let the hired hand go and took over the chores himself; it was an arrangement which had worked wonderfully until he started weeding some of Hannibal’s flowers and ornamental grass.   After uprooting the expensive plants the doctor took over the task of handling the flower beds himself once a week and left Will with the trimming the hedge and mowing the lawn.  “Hannibal has small feet Jack.  This has to be a men’s ten or eleven."  
  
"We'll know for sure when the team gets there.  Hang tight and try to keep the dogs away from the area."  
  
"Yeah, okay."  He hung up, stuffing the small electronic deep in his pocket before letting his hand fall to scratch behind Winston’s floppy ear.  The dog was standing at his side, readily offering the comfort and support he knew his master needed while dealing with such an intimate violation.  
   
The home he had come to think of as a sanctuary from the constant onslaught of the outside world, a safety built and sustained with Hannibal, was suddenly lost; invaded and left corrupt.  There would be no safety found there now, not knowing that someone had walked through its darkened corridors while he’d slept, searched though his belongings undetected and unseen and escaped without making a sound.  No scent or trace to be followed left behind, no so much as a print to be seen on the plush carpeted floor.  
  
He shivered, a sudden chill crawling beneath the warmth of his jacket, up his spin and through his bones.  Will was being stalked and it made his stomach turn.    
  
“I need to see Hannibal…”  But he couldn’t, knew that he couldn’t.  Jack would be watching, listening to every word passed between them either by making himself present or having a recording of any and all proceedings between the pair recorded and sent to him by Chilton.  
  
He needed to find a way to speak with him in private.  
  
Like a privacy found in heat.  
  
OoOoO  
  
"Why would you keep this to yourself Will?  Don't you have any friends you can call when bad things happen?  Someone smart enough to tell you to call the police when someone breaks in your window at four in the morning?"  Beverley Katz admonished, brow corked in that familiar way he’d missed during his year away from the team.  She’d been one of the ones he would have liked to call if circumstances hadn’t left things strained between him and those he’d known from work.  
  
"Not really."  Will answered honestly from where he stood in the crime lab, watching as Price worked the piece of glass over for Prints while Zeller analyzed photographs and report details on the shoe print.  "I used to call Hannibal but I’m mated to him now and everyone else was cut off like a limb when Jack had me released."  
  
"Hey, a phone works two ways."  Beverly countered.  "But I can see your point.  No one’s thought to call and you’re not much for bars or social scenes."  
  
"I've never been good at socializing, no."  A lonely childhood was proof enough of that.  
  
"You talk to large, attentive groups of people all the time."  Zeller countered as he sat back from his work to look at Will.  "Or do large crowds in auditoriums not count?"  
  
"My lectures consist of me talking at people,” he corrected, “not with them.  It's different.  I’m not socializing with anyone."  He hardly answered their questions when they had them, if he answered them at all, further proof of the point.  
  
"Weren’t you the popular kid on the playground,” Zeller laughed, swallowing it back when another presence made itself known.  
  
"Will’s past popularity amongst kindergarteners has no relevance to his work as a profiler now and now is all that I care about.”  Jack brought the topic of conversation to a screeching halt.  “What do you have for me?"  He asked addressing the room.  He didn’t care who stepped forward so long as somebody did.  
  
"The key wouldn't work for any of the locks on the Bentley.  I had it scanned and there isn't even a transponder chip in it."  Bev began, holding up a small plastic baggy with the newly obtained Bentley key.  
  
He pursed his lips, taking in the new information along with the dozen different scenarios it could be implying, like Will buying a key off e-bay to build a case for his mate and pass it off as his own, "Alright, so the key was switched, what about the glass?"  It was a possibility he couldn’t rule out, though one he didn’t want to believe.  
  
"Whatever fingerprints or DNA was on this is gone.”  Price sighed, “The only prints I'm picking up are Will's along the edge where he touched it."  He sat back looking down at the processed piece of glass with an air of disappointment.  “Too much time has passed; all I’m getting now are smudges and dirt.”  
  
"Jack, how do you know Will isn't faking all this to try and build a case for Hannibal's innocence?”  Zeller challenged, stepping away from the data on his desk as he confronted their leader.  “You're jeopardizing everything and risking our jobs by letting the suspects Omega in on the investigation.  You know he can't be on this case and you're pushing him on it."  He gave half a look and a partial shrug to Will, “No offence.”  He didn’t take any, he would have agreed if it wasn’t working so well in his favor not to.  
  
"Actually, Will's pushing for it."  Price offered in mild argument, gaining a look from the challenging Alpha.  "He's blackmailing Jack."  
  
“Jack brought him in to look at the body, giving him something to blackmail him with.”  Zeller shot back.  The argument was making him anxious, if Zeller swayed the team, if he fought to have him removed, his chance to save Hannibal would be shot.  
  
"Well we're all in on it now so it doesn't make any difference, does it?"  Katz snapped, "Jack showed Will, Will blackmailed Jack and the three of us let it happen without any protest, complaint or interference before working with him.  The five of us are in this together, guilty by association."  Will wondered if maybe Katz was that person he should have been calling for beer and broken windows.  
  
"She's right."  Price agreed with a shrug.  "If we wanted out of this we should have said something when they were drawing up the contract."  
  
Zeller didn't seem any happier with the situation, but caved.  "Fine, I’ll drop it,” because he didn’t want to lose his job, “but, that doesn't change the fact that it looks like he's building a case to prove Hannibal's innocence."  
  
"There's still the chance that he is,” Will finally spoke up, his chosen argument earing a look from Jack.  “What's to say that this isn't the Ripper trying again?  You didn’t exactly get anything conclusive from a dripping puddle of bloody pudding from his last round of courting gifts."  
  
"I thought you said this wasn't the Ripper."  Jack was quick to turn Will’s words against him, any opportunity to get closer to the Ripper, any chance that the one they had might be.  
  
"Would it be impossible for me to have been wrong, Jack?  You had me profiling hours after I had been tackled to the floor and my mate arrested.  It’s not like I was in the best state of mind when you dragged me in to look at the body he may or may not have mutilated."  He was too tired for this shit.  He hadn’t slept I nearly a week and was living off the shitty coffee served at the local 7/11 because he couldn’t figure out how to work the glass monstrosity Hannibal called a coffee machine.  
  
"I don't think it's very smart to be discrediting yourself right now."  Jack said, his tone level as he offered the Omega a look, one warning to tread carefully upon this new ground.  
  
Will didn’t think it was too bright either, but he could see the possibility of a gamble and he was going to take it, "Just, hear me out.  There are a lot of flaws in Mr. McKenzie that don't coincide with the Ripper's method of killing.  But that doesn't exclude him from this case.  Hannibal didn't kill his tailor; he liked him too much and was far too picky to kill the man.  He sent him a $300 bottle of wine for Christ’s sake.  So what if instead we look at this case as if it was the Ripper’s second coming and he’s trying to get Hannibal out of the picture?"  
  
Jack raised a brow, "Second coming?  We’ve seen the Ripper kill since the love letters of last year Will.  He hasn’t disappeared."  
  
"I disappeared and the love letters stopped.  There was no one to leave flowers for anymore and he slipped back into his usual routine.”  He said, building a case on half-truths, “But I re-appeared a couple of months back in one of Freddie’s articles."  
  
"I read that one,” Brian added, “she wrote a really nasty piece on you mating your shrink."  The comment earned him a harsh elbow from Beverly.  He really needed to re-evaluate his short list of friends.  
  
"And about a month after that she was found as one of the Ripper’s victims.  What if Ripper was a reader of Tattle Crime and that article let the Ripper find me again?  It could be why he went after Freddie, insulting ‘his’ Omega.”  He shifted, feigning discomfort in the conversation and its implications, “He might have started watching me for a while again, decided he was ready for a second try.  Get rid of my Alpha and go for it."  His mouth was feeling dry by the end of it.  The theory might have been forged on half-truths, but the ones that made their foundation were true enough to have a spike of fear twist his gut.  
  
He was being watched.  He was being followed.  Now he had to find out by whom.  
  
And frame them as the Chesapeake Ripper.  
  
"It's possible," Katz was on his side again and Will wanted to buy her a beer, "maybe he's following some of the old Alpha customs.  Back in medieval times Alpha's would challenge each other for the right to mate an Omega.  If the defeated Alpha had any other mates bound to them they would be killed, sold or taken in a harem by the victorious Alpha.  He could be trying to win Will as his mate."  
  
"What would be the point of that?  Omega’s can only bond once."  Will asked, he hadn’t read too many history books, his interests falling closer to fishing and the sciences.  
  
"Show of dominance?"  Zeller offered, "The more mates, the more offspring, stronger sense of dominance and greater value of the Alpha…well, for the time period.”  He speculated.  
  
"They use to believe that if you bit over a bonding mark during climax while an Omega was in the heart of their heat you could re-bond them."  Katz went on to explain.  
  
Jack frowned, a look of concern cast toward the Omega determined to remain a part of his own dangerous case.  He should have been throwing Will in protective custody.  "Any of that true?"  
  
She shrugged, "I'm telling you what I remember from a history book in eleventh grade.  You're going to have to Google it if you want more."  
  
As he looked at Will Jack couldn’t deny that he’d never seen him healthier, happier, than he had when he’d been with Hannibal.  The change had been slow in the beginning, the gain of muscle where his body had been too lean from little interest in food, a new alertness in his eyes where he’d seem tired and drained before…he could see the change more clearly now.  Will was reverting.  The glow that had taken his skin, the extra spark of life that had danced more joyfully behind grey eyes, was disappearing.  In all his years knowing the Omega, he’d never seen him as happy as he was while bound to Hannibal Lecter.    
  
It was a happiness he wanted to see back.  
  
"Hannibal is still a suspect, but I’m not dismissing the possibility of a frame in connection with the murders from last year."  He saw a look of hope cross Will's otherwise dead eyes and felt something sorrowful fill his chest, "Zeller, you got anything off the foot print?"  
  
"Shoe size is a men’s eleven, wide, and I can’t get a good print off the tread despite soft ground.  It looks like he was wearing bags over his shoes."  He shrugged, looking as tired and in need of caffeine as the rest of the team.  
  
"So he wouldn't track dirt into the house and rouse suspicion.”  Will rubbed his eyes as though suffering a headache and fished a bottle of asprin from his pocket, dry swallowing two small green pills.  “He would have taken them off while sitting on the windowsill."  
   
"You really think someone broke into your house?"  Jack asked.  
  
"I have a receipt still in my wallet for the replacement glass and frame if you don't believe me.”  He shrugged, dumping the empty bottle in the trash bin.  “I didn't stage this Jack.  There was no way I could have anticipated Hannibal’s arrest to buy a window nearly a week in advance and stage this."  
  
"Alright,” he yielded, “We'll make a record of it and won't dismiss the possibility.  I’m out to catch the Ripper and whoever killed Mr. McKenzie, not put your mate away.  But this isn’t enough to prove him innocent, Will.  It only paints a possibility."  
  
"All you have is a mutilated body found in his trunk," Will challenged, “There is more evidence pointing to his being framed than to his being the killer.”  
  
"What about how the Rippers murders from last year, Will, his courting gifts?  They suddenly stopped once you became comfortable with him as your mate.  You changed your mind, you said that McKenzie could be a victim of the Ripper and that changes everything.  Hannibal being the Ripper is a possibility we can't rule out."  One that, unfortunately for Will, kept Hannibal in the BSHCI until a judge deemed him innocent or guilty.  
  
“You’re right Jack.”  He relented, “It is a possibility.  One I want to ignore and can’t, shouldn’t…Hannibal being the Ripper can’t be ruled out until there is either undisputable evidence suggesting otherwise or another murder appears.”  Like his stalker.  
  
“If one does,” Jack warned and Will realized he wasn’t as trusted as he thought.  “You’d better have an alibi.”  
  
“You think I’m a killer?”  
  
“No, I think an Omega would do anything for their mate, including kill.”  
  
Will took a breath, slow and shallow as he met eyes with the warning Alpha.  If he wasn’t on the case Jack would have had him under watch.  As it was, he might be.  He’d have to make a point of looking for routine cars and casual personal staying close by.  “I’ll keep that in mind.”  
  
“Good.  Can you tell me where you were last night?”  
  
“Last night?”  He furrowed his brow, “I was in bed until I got sick of staring at the ceiling and took the dogs for a walk at the local park.”  
  
Jack cocked his head, “That’s not a dog park.”  
  
He was picking the alibi apart like an interrogation, “The locals don’t tend to care about that at five in the morning…who was killed?”  
  
He gave the team a look and they started to pack, gathering tools and placing scrutinized evidence in storage.  “Melissa Wright.  Night time security guard,” He gave Will a careful look.  “She was found an hour ago.”  
  
“Jack, I can’t go to this one.”  Will warned, he could feel it creeping up on him, warmth like heated honey beginning to slick within, his flesh beginning to heat and beneath his skin, head becoming foggy.    
  
He shifted with the growing discomfort and Jack’s eyes flew wide, “Jesus Christ, Will.  Are you even due?”  
  
He could feel the thick fluid of his slick soaking his briefs, it was happening faster than he’d intended.  “Not yet…not for another three weeks…”  
  
“It could be an instinctive heat.”  Price offered answer, “His house was just broken into and there’s a good possibility of another Alpha hunting him.  His body could be forcing him into an early or, ‘mini-heat’, to re-confirm himself with his Alpha.  It would be a biological response to try and regain his Alpha’s scent and deter pursuing suitors.”  
  
Jack cursed as heady hormones began to saturate the air, slowly filling the room and threatening to throw the Alpha’s present into rut.  “How long do you have before it fully sets in?”  
  
Will shifted again, moving his weight from one foot to the other in his growing discomfort; his clothes were beging to feel uncomfortable, like steel wool grinding against his skin, “Maybe an hour,” he said, his muscles were starting to loosen, preparing him for the stretch and swallow of a knot.  
  
“If I clear out the crime scene can you look before we lose you to heat?  Tell me if this is the Ripper?”  Now Jack was the one sounding desperate.  
  
“How close is the site?”  
  
“I can have you in and out in forty minutes.”  
  
He took a shaky breath, sweat was beginning to dampen his skin, his dealer had said he’d have at least an hour after taking the dose to get to his Alpha, that hour quickly turning to the forty minutes Jack needed.  He wouldn’t be surprised if it lessened still while driving to the scene.  He needed Hannibal.  His skin was on fire now, flesh burning with need, an ache building deep within his core, one that could only be sated with the aid of an Alpha, his Alpha.  “Clear the site, I’ll take a look and then you have to give me temporary leave.”  He swallowed; it was getting harder to think, harder to concentrate on anything but the idea of Hannibal’s broad cool hands skimming over his body, cooling his blistering flesh under their administrations.    
  
“Fine,” Whether Jack liked it or not he couldn’t fight a cycle, once an Omega started there was no stopping heat, “Price, you’re a Beta, you won’t be as affected, you think you can take Will to the scene?”  
  
He gave a quick sniff of the air and nodded, “It shouldn’t be a problem.”  He was affected, a slight arousal tugging at him, one that could be just as easily ignored as encourage.  But the others, the three Alpha’s in the room, their eyes were already dilating with a countering pheromone of their own being released, one meant to entice an Omega and draw them in.  Oh the needs of biology.  He left his bag and the small mess at his desk, casting a look to Zeller in the silent request to finish up for him as he grabbed his coat and left, the half heat-drunken Omega hot on his heals as they hurried out of the building.    
  
As a Beta he Jimmy suffered neither rut nor heat.  He was enticed by both and could enjoy a partner from either gender taking on the corresponding role of the missing sex for a happy and healthy mating and relationship.  It was a freedom that allowed him an outsider view on the chemistry of Alphas and Omegas and let him think with a clearer mind when others were being influenced by their need for control and hormonal imbalance.  For that reason Jimmy Price ignored his phone as it buzzed to life in his pocket with the address of the site he was to deliver the suffering Omega to, the Beta instead turning the opposite direction to pull up the long drive and park in front of the Baltimore Hospital For The Criminally Insane.    
  
“This isn’t a murder site.”  Will said, flush faced and shaking as Price helped him out of the car and up the steps into the building, his legs were weak with need now, his head swimming as he scented a thousand Alpha’s and their insanity in the stale air of the building.    
  
“No it isn’t, but you can’t work like this Will.  You should have said no and Jack never should have asked you to try.  Jack will simply have to deal with whatever you can manage from pictures once you get back.”  He answered.  
  
Will felt foolish for never having realized exactly how many friends he had, “Thank you Jimmy.”  
  
They stopped in front of the front desk, Will flush faced and shaking, Price smiling and calm as he fished out his ID and badge and presented them to the lady at the front desk.  “Jimmy Price of the FBI, I need to check in Omega Will Graham for an impromptu Instinctual Heat-preferably in a private cell-with his Alpha, Hannibal Lecter MD.”  
  
OoOoO

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading~<3
> 
> Your kudos are trying to figure out how to work Hannibal's coffee machine, your comments are racing to the BSHCI to get front row seats for the smut fest.
> 
> Hannibal is waiting for his mate with possessive hunger that comes with having what is his taken away.
> 
>  
> 
> _Updates to be posted Saturday 12:00pm AST._


	7. BSHCI

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will discovers what is it to share a heat with a patient in the BSHCI.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is looooooooong. It's nearly double the length of my usual chapters and it took a hella long time to write and edit. I basically ignored my wife for five hours on our mutual day off just to make sure I had this thing done on time for update.
> 
> In short, I took extra time on this chapter and I hope you all enjoy the extra effort that went into it.
> 
> Love you darlings, enjoy the update~<3
> 
> THANK YOU TO EVERETT_HARTE FOR HELPING ME WITH THIS CHAPTER!!!! UUUUUUUUUUUUGH!!!!!
> 
> **Next update for Saturday, March 14. Sorry for the delay**
> 
> I own nothing. 
> 
> Not Beta Read.

"Hello Dr. Lecter," Matthew smiled from outside the cage, he was positively preening, standing before the Ripper like a child knowing he were about to be rewarded with praise.  
  
"Good morning Matthew."  Hannibal greeted in turn rising from his desk.  He had been working on drawing, one of his sweet William as the saint Sebastian bound to a tree and donned in a loin cloth.  The image was unfinished, several arrow shafts needing to be added to the flesh of his beloved and only the barest outline of the tree present in the picture.  It was an image he was having more trouble bringing to life than he had anticipated.  The idea of causing any pain to the man he loved no longer holding the appeal it once had, not even in art.  The more he shaded a look of pain on the Omega's face the more he wished to change it from Sebastian to Ganymede, something where he might twist his features to suffer exquisite fearful pleasure instead of terror and death.  "Has breakfast come early today?"  The meal wasn't due for another several hours, neither any visits from the staff.  It was still far too early for any cleaning of the cell or escort for bathing.  
  
The orderly shook his head, smile widening as he pulled the sliding trey through to carefully placed a gift within.  "I came for a personal visit."  He told the doctor pushing it through.  "I think this should be enough to prove myself to you."  Which Hannibal immediately understood to mean the cameras were once again off, offering the Orderly enough time in these few early hours of the morning to once again meet with Hannibal in private, the nightshifts skeleton crew still working.  
  
Hannibal stepped closer to the sliding trey, keen eyes peering down to look at the tongue within with a skewed brow.  "How long have you had this?"  He asked reaching into the drawer to lift the small offering from the stainless steel surface.  It was fresh, maybe a few hours old.  He turned curious maroon eyes to take in the proud young man standing before him.  This was no agent attempting to fool him; the smile too wide, energy to wild in his shifting movements and fidgeting anticipation, this was an admirer looking for acceptance and praise.    
  
Matthew wanted to impress the Ripper, prove himself trustworthy to the infamous killer so that he might confide in him and find usefulness in him while he remained within BSHCI custody.  
  
"About forty-five minutes."  He answered, smile still in place as he watched Hannibal examine the piece of flesh in hand, his breath stopped as he witnessed a true face of the Ripper, his mask slipping as he tilted his head back and slipped the flesh into his mouth, swallowing the chunk of meat whole.    
  
“You eat them.”  He said in near awe, it was a piece of the Ripper no one had laid witness to before, an intimate secret he accepted as his anointing to serve this predator.  
  
Hannibal only smiled, canting his head as he took in the man regarding him with reverence.  "That most certainly was not pork."  The taste was familiar; it’s raw form nostalgic to him, a savory Alpha’s flesh made sour by fear and salted by blood.  
  
This man had most definitely killed for him.    
  
"No."  Matt agreed, barely able to contain his excitement as he watched the Ripper clean the last taste of human from his lips, appreciating the fleeting ghost of flavor that still clung there.  "I needed something that would prove to you I wasn't lying,” though he hadn’t expected him to consume the offering like a sacrifice, “I want to help you Dr. Lecter, any way I can."  
  
The offer was made far more alluring with the taste of death on his tongue.  Now that Matt had proven his loyalty with blood on his hands, murdering just for the chance to convince Hannibal of his devotion.  
  
It left Hannibal curious what else this man might do for him if asked, where his limits-if any-might lay, "I trust you now."  He rewarded the creature before him with a truly rare gift and let a truer smile show, one with teeth and the promise of death.  New plans were already beginning to form within his keen mind now that the color and shape of his newest game piece has at last revealed; a method to torment Jack while trapped within the confines of his cell and a safe contact to carry messages to his dear sweet William.    
  
An emissary for the devil.  
  
They were interrupted by the buzz of Matt’s radio, the little black box sounding to life on his hip.  “Matt Brown?”    
  
A woman’s voice sounded through the receiver and he offered an apologetic smile to the serial killer as he brought the radio to mouth, “Go for Brown.”    
  
Another buzz of static and her whiskey raw voice sounded against, “Brown, I have a requested IOH.  Are you available for a couple of hours to look after that?”  
  
“Instinctual Omega Heat, unplanned.  Heats need to be supervised for violence; we usually have extra personal for days with scheduled heats.”  Matt offered explanation before answering, “I’m in the bottom east wing, high profile.  What about Barney?”  
  
“Barney’s sick, it’s for high profile.”  He raised a brow and turning a look to Hannibal as the radio buzzed to life again, “It’s for H. Lecter, privacy quarters.  I can get someone to cover care for the wing but no one else on has the training for high profile heat watches.  Think could you cover it?”  
  
Hannibal stepped closer to the bars, interest peeked and Matthew smiled walking to a storage closet just across the hall from his cell, “Yeah, I can pull a double and watch them through the night.  Instinctual heats tend to be short.”  He grabbed a canvas bag from a shelf in the closet and walked it back to Hannibal’s drawer dropping it in for transfer.  
  
“Thanks Matt.”  
  
“No problem.”  He clipped the radio back to his belt, smiling as Hannibal opened the canvas bag with intrigue to withdraw a restraint jacket and bit.  “If you’d be so kind to slip those on doctor, I’d be happy to fasten the belts, strap you to a cart and bring you to your mate.”  
  
OoOoO  
  
Will sat on a hard plastic chair in the hospital lobby, it was uncomfortable, more so thanks to his heat and he was praying to every deity he’d ever heard of Chilton didn’t decide today was a good day to go to work early.  He was staring at a folded piece of paper when the orderly finally came for him.  Price had scribbled his number on it, handing it to Will telling him to call when he was done for pick up.  It was a nicer gesture than Will deserved given that he generally ate people and assisted in creating the work load that was keeping the man well employed.    
  
“Mr. Graham?”  An orderly with dark hair and deep seated eyes called his attention, “If you’re ready I’ll take you to your Alpha now.”  He nodded and rose to follow.  
  
The building was old; its ventilation in need of repair and heating in poor condition, it left the building feeling cool, its air stale-reeking of madness and Alpha.  Despite the sour scent, it did nothing to ease the crawling of Will’s skin.  He was dizzy with need, the desire to feel flesh against his own and have his barren place filled, nearly consuming.  He wondered if that was as far as the drug would take him, leave him sitting on the very edge of his need, just sober enough of its effect to resist the full drowning pull of heat and keep his mind awake.  "How does this work?"  Will asked as he was escorted downstairs and into a more private room, one smelling more of the Omega’s who came to visit their mates and the staff who had to care for them.  
  
He took the opportunity to look around, examining the plain room and its few furnishings as the orderly opened cupboards and drawers gathering a white jump suit and slippers before opening a locker.  There wasn’t much to see.  The room obviously a designated changing area for the unlucky mates of those incarcerated to change and store their belongings, there was a laundry trolley he assumed for the bedding and borrowed clothes once the unfortunate mating was done.  
  
 "It starts with a strip search," The man informed him, handing Will the change of clothes as another orderly entered the room, giving the first a nod as he took a place to the side.    
  
“There has to be two of us present during the search.”  The newest arrival explained, “All just procedure to make sure you’re not bringing anything in to your mate while visiting. I’m just  here to make sure no one gets violated.  Matt doesn’t touch you, you don’t scream rape.”  He shrugged and Will realized he’d stepped back into a world where he was nothing. 

Hannibal had elevated Will to a world beyond the discrimination of his gender, one eliminating the prejudice against his sex.  With his Alpha sealed away in the depths of the institute he was nothing more than an Omega and he would be treated with the disrespect that came with being such.

 

  
Despite his displeasure of an audience and a search Will couldn’t deny the procedure made sense, he should have expected it and could only blame himself for not having considered it before.  However, his understanding did nothing to ease his embarrassment and he turned his back to the man and his associate, a small privacy the orderlies allowed, as he began to strip, stuffing his socks into his shoes before shoving them in locker, sloppily folded each article of clothing to set on top, his wallet, keys and cell phone tucked to the side within.  
  
He fidgeted as the chilled institute air raised goose bumps along his arms and cooled the radiating heat of his skin.  Despite his unwanted reveal it was nearly a relief to at last have the harsh scratch of cotton and denim off him, the restricting fabric no longer biting into his flesh with every movement.  If it wasn’t for the men standing at his back, dark eyes watching him as thick beads of slick rolled down his inner thighs, it might have been the respite.  
  
“Protocol demands the examination prove items are not being smuggled via cavity,”  Will felt his stomach drop and looked over his shoulder to the men watching him with utter indifference,  “I need you to spread your legs, bend over and cough.”  
  
Swallowing his humiliation he shuffled his feet apart placed his hands on the desk, bending over to reveal himself entirely and coughed.  He was suddenly wishing he’d bothered to take the time and read the fucking contract the receptionist had handed him, this would have been outlined in it somewhere and Will might have had second thoughts about signing it if he’d read the detailed procedure beforehand.  Instead he’d signed it without bothering to read thanks to a heat saturated mind and didn’t doubt it was a common place mistake made by most Omega’s desperate enough to visit the BSHCI to see their Alpha.  
  
If Will had been hiding anything within the confines of his body it would have slid out, pushed free from the force and movement of the cough, instead to his further embarrassment a gush of slick pushed free from his opening, coating his thighs in a hot and sticky mess, running his legs nearly to his knees.    
  
“You’re clear.”  The orderly informed as though the act were common place, “you’re free to dress now.”  
  
He’d never felt more violated as he grabbed the cheap polyester suit and pulled it over blazing skin, wincing as he tucked his aching erection into pants already sticking to his messy flesh.  
  
This wasn’t a situation he wanted to live through again and it wasn’t a life style Will thought he could adjust to.  If he couldn’t prove Hannibal’s innocence he’d have to break him out.  “Why is it white?”  He asked, trying to distract himself from his situation as he slid the zipper up the length of his front, encasing himself in the equivalent of steel wool that had him wishing he could curl in on himself.  
  
"Inmates wear dark blue, visiting Omega's wear white.  It's good for quick visual separation and makes it easy to spot any blood from injuries during mating if the Alpha gets rough.  It’s common for Omegas to try and hide the marks, keep their Alpha protected.”  The second orderly explained, giving a nod to the one he’d called Matt before heading for the door, “It’s part of the reason for the strip search, the same two have to be present before and after, make sure there’s no new marks on the skin and nothing is being smuggled to the inmate."  
  
“Thanks Bill, I’ll see you after.”  Matt gave a nod and the assistant left, his attention turning back to the fidgeting Will.  “I know it’s not fun, but it’s protocol or I’d let you skip it.”  
  
Will didn’t want his apologies, he counted himself lucky that neither man had demanded he give them a spin for a more thorough check and that was all the gratitude he was willing to give, "When do I get to see Hannibal?"  
  
"We're going to see him now."  Matt told him, swiping his badge to open a door out the back leading to a staircase.  As the orderly led on he seemed to make it a point not to touch Will, keeping his hands entirely to himself as he directed the nervous Omega through the darkened hall of sealed empty rooms to a door at the very end, a glow of yellow light shining from the small square window on its door.  Will recognized these to be the 'Privacy Rooms', kept separate from the rest of the hospital by the changing room leading into them.  They would be specially designed for the specific purpose of assisting Omega's like Will with incarcerated Alpha's during heat cycles.  
  
Aside from the window each room seemed to have two doors, one into the privacy room and one into an attached observatory, it made Will uncomfortable to stand next to the man knowing he would be watching.  "Is Hannibal already in there?"  He asked and felt a slight tension release when the orderly nodded, flashing his security card against a scanner and punching a code.  The door pulled open with the turn of a handle and the sound of hydraulics releasing the lock at last admitting Will into the room.    
  
Dressed in institute issued coveralls and escorted into the room Will felt like a resident as he stepped through the door, entering a cage all his own to contain the madness he had chosen to embrace.  It was like stepping into a nightmare he’d always feared and knew could all too easily become real.    
  
The room was as plain as the rest of the building, with cheap linoleum floors and grey painted stone walls it had been built for easy cleanup and stunk of industrial bleach.  Within the simple room were the basics:  A toilet, sink, bed and one-way mirror large enough to prevent even the slightest concealment from the witness who would be seated behind the presumably bullet-proof glass.  There was another door by the window, assumedly leading to the observatory room he’d seen the additional access door to outside.  But most noticeably of all was the standing cage at the far side of the room, "Hannibal?"  He said mouth dry and mind swimming as he approached the cage and the man who stood within, gaged with a bit and bound in a straightjacket.    
  
It hurt in a ways he couldn’t explain to see the imposing figure that was Hannibal reduced to this…  
  
Dark maroon eyes smiled in greeting for the mouth that couldn’t as the door to the hall sealed shut, the orderly walking past the stunned Omega to approach his Alpha’s cage.  “If you would turn around Dr. Lecter,” the attention of those dark eyes turned to the Beta and Hannibal conceded, turning to press his back against the bars for the man to work free the belts that held him and open the catch on the bit.  “The glass in the room is one way,” he began to explain, though Will already knew that, “I’ll be behind it through the entire experience should you require anything.”  It was then Will realized he wasn’t address him, but his mate, the Beta offering his services to Hannibal instead of himself.  “But, thanks to the Heat Privacy Act, I’ll be the only one watching.  There’re no cameras or sound equipment permitted within the mating area and only one witness at a time permitted in the observation room.”  Hannibal stepped away from the cage wall and slipped the jacket from his arms as though it were one of his many suits and not the six buckled restraint that had been holding him, handing both it and the mouth piece through the bars to the orderly with a small charmed smile, “Thank you Dr. Lecter, if the heat turns violent I’m required by law to gas the room with a sedative and add the Alpha to a red flag list prohibiting any future heat visitation.”  
  
A spike of panic stabbed through Will at the thought of losing even this small allowance to see his mate, despite the invasive procedure.  If Hannibal was taken from him completely, if he couldn’t find a way to free him from this place, Will didn’t want to think of what he might do.  
  
“But I don’t think we have to worry about that.”  Matthew smiled, leaving the pair to once again swipe his card and open the door to the adjoining rom.  “I’ve got a book in there so if you need anything tap on the glass.  Otherwise I’ll give you your privacy.”  
  
"Thank you Matthew."  Hannibal said with a knowing smile, his jaw was sore from the bit, the leather coated metal rod meant to remain during the their shared time, it was the first of many favors Matthew would be granting the Ripper by taking it with him into the room while he saw to his mate.  “I don’t believe any accommodations will be necessary.  Also,” the orderly paused, standing just within the door to look back at the Ripper and his confused mate, “William is well aware of my nature.”  The smile that split Matt’s face was wide and twisted in all the ways of a serial killer, the thick scar on his lip distorting it to pull on one side.  “He’s a participant.”  
  
With a nod of acknowledgement the door slid shut behind him, a sharp buzz sounding in the room like a warning before the lock clicked and the cage door slid open, releasing the Ripper from his prison.  He stepped forward; taking the few short strides to bring him to his William, a hand settling on the familiar swell of hip to bring the Omega back against him, feel the fevered heat of his body through their suits.  
  
"What's going on?"  Will asked as a familiar nose nuzzled into his curls, his Alpha scenting the heady pheromones of his heat as their voyeur settled behind the safety of glass.  “Why would you tell him that?”  His breath hitched when teeth caught skin and pinched, another flood of slick soaking his legs with the enticement, “Do you want to stay in the institute?”  
  
Hannibal hummed as he walked them toward the bed; a small ugly thing dressed in threadbare sheets with a single flat pillow, the only good thing about it the smell of industrial cleaner overriding the scent of a dozen mated pairs before them.  At least he knew it was clean.  “Matthew has offered his services to us.”  Hannibal explained, hands sliding up Will’s front to find the catch of his jumpsuit and pull the long zipper down.  “He has proven himself trustworthy and I believe his help will prove advantageous.”  Will felt his heart hammer as Hannibal slid the suit over his shoulders, the fabric falling down his torso, sliding off his arms to settle at his hips.  Surgeon steady hands followed the folds of fabric to Will’s hips, catching the article to slide down familiar toned legs.    
  
Will felt exposed, a sensation that wasn’t suffered when with Hannibal at home, he looked over his shoulder to the separating glass and the man he knew sat behind it, growing tense despite the sooth touch to blistering flesh.  
  
He said he wouldn’t watch them.  But it could just as easily have been a lie.  “He killed someone for you?”  He tried to keep his mind distracted from the possibly witness, this was meant to be a private moment between them, a time for reaffirming their bond, it wasn’t meant to be shared.    
  
“Yes.”  Will stepped out of the pants, balanced by Hannibal’s hands as his slipper were kicked away with the suit and he listened to the sound of his Alpha’s long fly falling down behind him, a navy suit and white garments quick to follow Will’s own.  “He brought me their tongue.”  
  
Strong arms wrapped around Will’s tapered waist and he pulled him back against him, felt the fit of their bodies as one, the curve of spine against his chest and heat of sweat slicked flesh he had missed too many nights while sealed away.  “Now, tell me what you are doing William.”  There was an edge of warning to his Alpha’s voice despite the pressure of his cock against Will’s ass.  “You’re heat is not due for another three weeks, this was forced.  I can smell the drugs; they make your natural scent sour…”  He nipped the juncture of neck and shoulder and drew a soft moan from his mate.  
  
Will’s head was swimming, body quaking as he felt the barest relief from the press of hardened flesh against his own, the pressure of a hand sliding up his chest to wrap around his throat beneath his chin, tilt his head for easier access to their bonding mark.  A broad tongue wet and warm slid along the ropey scar, a reminder of his boundaries and those he had crossed.  Will was no longer permitted to take hormone drugs, evokers or suppressants.  He shivered despite the underlying threat, a bead of pre swelling to roll the length of his cock.  
  
“I needed to see you.”  He gasped, “I need to talk to you about the case.”  The hand that had held him slid from his throat, drawing a line down the front of his body like a knife, over his sternum and down his stomach to the thatch of hair above his erection.  “It was the only way I could think of to speak to you in private.”  Less private than he had anticipated, but at least it was without recording or Jack.    
  
“What have you discovered?”  He kissed a line down his neck, warm open mouthed things that sucked color into the flesh beneath them and brought Will to his knees, heart thrumming in his chest as his knees hit the bed, hands catching him in his fall.    
  
“Hannibal, he can see us…” Broad hands skimmed his sides in gentling, coaxing him that little bit farther onto the mattress.  
  
“He will not see you.”  Hannibal assured crawling over his lover, shielding his naked form with his own, fitted against and around his Omega.  
  
There was little comfort in that, a selfishness blooming in Will at Hannibal’s reveal and resentment for the trespass of their most private moment.  “I don’t really want him seeing you either.”  He said head ducked between his shoulders forehead touching the worn fabric of the bed.  Whether they did it against the glass, and he was sure more than one mating pair in the past had if only to spite the orderly stuck watching, or with Hannibal curled around him like a piece of armour meant to shield him from the world, the fact remained that their movements alone would be telling.    
  
“I would rather he witness my back than you in your moment of debauchery.”  He kissed his nape, the Omegan pressure point so often used to render as well as calm, and scented Will again.  He was intoxicating, the scent of honey soaked fruit burning beneath his skin, blended with the bitter salt of perspiration.  “You are mine and mine alone.  I will not share you with anyone.”    
  
Words that should have been soothing brought bile to his throat, a swell of fear consuming him as Will lowered his chest to the bed, a sudden need to be filled and feel his Alpha within having him press back against Hannibal’s cock, feel the shaft slide along the clef of his ass and past his opening.  It wasn’t enough, wouldn’t be enough until he wore Hannibal’s scent inside as well as out.  “Hannibal, I’m being hunted.”  
  
Skilled fingers skimmed heated flesh, drawing another shiver from his mate as they followed the curve of his back to the round of his ass, spreading the mounds to see the source of his slick.  His attention was drawn away from the puckered pink ring with those four words of warning.  They were words he did not wish to hear while unavailable to protect what was his, “By the Alpha who framed me?”  
  
He nodded, whimpering when the hands left his need to instead curl around his stomach, bringing him back to his knees as their bodies pressed as one and he felt the threat of teeth against his mark, the heat of breath against his skin.  “What do you know about this killer Will?”  It was no threat against his mate, but a warning to his pursuer of his unavailability.  
  
“The window,” it was so hard to think now, with Hannibal pressed against him and what he needed so close he feel it pressed against back when it should have been inside him, cooling the fire that raged.  
  
“Go on,” Hannibal coaxed, speaking into the twisted mark of their bond.    
  
He took a breath, closing his eyes as he tried to concentrate, remember why he’d taken the damn drug in the first place.  “He broke the window, stole my key to the Bentley.”  He swallowed throat dry, one hand holding the arm that held him, he other stroking his cock, searching for security and relief, “I found cut glass under the window, a circle large enough to fit a man’s arm through.”  His breath hitched when his stroking hand was taken in Hannibal’s and moved away, calloused fingers taking their place in leisure strokes.    
  
“I’m being framed with an imitation of your courting gifts.”  He bristled at the thought, it was a challenge for the right to be Will’s mate, his already having taken an Alpha meaning nothing to this particular suitor.  “I want you to be very careful William,” He pushed inside him in one smooth thrust, at last giving the needy flesh that which it desired.  “This Alpha will be stalking you,” he began, seating himself to the root, hand skimming the jumping flesh of Will’s stomach, lips moving against throat with lust quaking words.  “Watching like a hunter for the opportunity to lure you, gain your trust,” as he had done, drawing his William to him like a moth to the flame, creating the circumstances that would force his path and lead him to him.  This Alpha was very much doing the same.  “You mustn’t trust anyone.”  
  
“I’ll be careful,” he bit his lip, rolling his hips to feel the heavy flesh stretching him move, “I’ll find him.  Prove you’re innocence.”  
  
“I want you to avoid meeting with him.”  He closed his eyes, pushing away the rising urge to rut, forcing his mind to remain focused as he held them as one.  “He will bite you if given the chance William.”  And he would raze all of Mary Land.  
  
His breath hitched, muscles clenching as he tried to roll his hips against his Alpha and gain some friction, but the iron grip that held him would not relent.  “I’ll avoid him.”  He promised, his mind was slipping and he wished he’d taken a small dose, something that would have left him with a clearer mind to think.    
  
“Do not break this promise William,” though his voice held steady, there was a sadness felt like water through their link, a fear of loss he so nearly suffered once before and never wished to know again.  “I don’t know if I could forgive that trespass.”    
  
Will swallowed back a whimper and turned to find thin lips in a kiss.  “I can’t make that promise.  Not honestly.”  He felt his hurt pass through their bond, an ache that could have been a knife for how it pierced him, “I’ll do whatever it takes to free you Hannibal.”  He said, the threat of tears burning his eyes as he hurt the man he loved.  “I can’t live without you anymore.  I need you.”  It was too lonely without him.  The solitude that had soothed him once before now sat on his throat like a knife.  He didn’t want to think of what he would happen if that loneliness became his sole company again.  Loneliness and his dogs; It was a life he had left behind and one he couldn’t return to, not now that he known something better.  
  
If he was left to the loneliness he’d take that knife in hand.    
  
“I forbid you.”  He whispered dark and smooth as molasses; accent curling through him as the grip around him tightened.  “Should you ever harm yourself I will hunt you down within the pits of hell and kill you myself, should I ever know you to threaten such again you will lose the use of your arms.”  Another nip threatened to break skin and Will hissed at the harsh pinch of teeth upon him.  
  
The threat almost made him smile, “I will do whatever it takes to get you out.”  He promised again, “if I can’t-“  
  
“Then you will wait for me.”  He kissed him and it was hard enough to bruise, biting his way into the Omega’s mouth as he began a gentle rock of his hips, earned the first of many breathy noises from his lover as he found his prostate with few practiced movements and took a faster gate, hitting the sensitive ball of nerves with every other thrust.  “You will find a place far from here and you will wait for me.”  It was nearly a growl, a rumble sounding from deep within his chest as he made his demand.  
  
“H-how will you-“ his words caught as another thrust found his pleasure and he was eased to the bed, fingers gripping sheets as his chest met the mattress, a better support and angle for the deep movements filling him.  
  
“I will always find you,” Hannibal brought his body over him like a cage and pushed deeper into moaning empath, “our bond will draw us together until death parts us.”  He said, one arm curled around him to brace yielding flesh as the other intertwined fingers with Will’s; pressing into the mattress for support.  “But even if fate were to break our bond, you could never hide from me.  I will always find you.”  He had more than proven his abilities to hunt in his youth during a time with far more limited technology and far less access to funds than what were available to him now.    
  
“Hannibal,” he moaned his name, pressing back to meet each thrust as it brought him closer to the edge, a pressure building low on his stomach.  He didn’t want to make promises to wait for him, to arrange the safety of cash funds and secure a route out of the country; he didn’t want it to be an option.  Admitting that truth would give it life and it was a truth he wished to leave sleeping.  
  
It wasn’t enough to hear his name, to feel the flesh of his Omega wrapped around him and know that he was his, he needed to see his lust blown eyes and see kiss swollen lips, watch as his breath was stolen from him in orgasm.  
  
It was a sight he needed to memorize in case this was their last.  
  
He pulled from him, a sharp cry piercing the air at Will’s sudden loss, one Hannibal quickly rectified with a surprising feat of strength as he flipped the profiler to his back, long lithe legs quickly wrapping around his hips to draw his Alpha’s cock back inside, arms finding perch around strong shoulders to hold him close.  “Promise me.”  It wasn’t a request.  He leaned over his mate, devouring the lewd pleasures that parted lips with every snap of hips.  
  
 Locking his ankles at the small of his back, he dug his heal into flesh and forced the thrusts deeper, “I don’t want to!”  He arched finding his end even as another pain pierced through him, Hannibal’s now blending with his own like a double edged sword they were both made to hold and squeeze, both made to suffer and bleed by its wrath.  “I don’t want to wait…”  He panted as the last few flagging thrusts signaled Hannibal’s own end and he felt the stretch of his knot, the flesh swelling to plug Will and seal their bodies as one as Hannibal stilled within and a sudden heat painted his insides, at last cooling him with a temporary relief.  
  
“You would refuse to wait to force my escape?”  The pain was lifting, changing to a soft amusement, “How very selfish of you.” He said, the edge of a smile pulling at his lips.  Of course Will would wait for him, he had been foolish to think otherwise.  Will would wait so long as Hannibal would come. The danger would only be found if Hannibal's stay became an indefinite sentence, one incapable of escape.  
  
“It’s selfish to ask me to wait.” Will countered, body growing lax with orgasm. He held Hannibal close as the Alpha moved them farther onto the bed laying his body upon him more comfortably as they waited for his knot to deflate and Will's heat to spike again.  
  
“It was selfish to ask for blind trust.”  
  
Especially when that trust came from a man who commanded control in his every breath, no movement uncalculated, no gesture without thought.  
  
It was no small gift and it was one Will would not squander.  “I will get you out of here Hannibal.”  
  
He would find a way to free him, no matter the cost.  
  
OoOoO  
  
TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading~<3
> 
> Your kudos are chilling with Matt and bouncing popcorn off the glass in rage of the shitty view. Your comments are signing a petition for second helpings of smut to make up for the chapters angst.
> 
> The author is drinking honey scotch and watching within the safety of the privacy cell's cage.
> 
>  
> 
> _Next update for Saturday, March 14. Sorry for the delay_


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sex and talking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I needed to get back into the swing of things and find my muse and feel the characters back out. If this reads awkward or seems pointless or comes off as a disappointment, I'm sorry. I'm doing the best I can. Bonus though! I've started the next chapter, so...that's something, right?

08

 

Will arched, breath leaving him in shaky gasps as he rode the thick cock of his Alpha.  His knot was growing, swelling with Will’s administrations and he shuddered with each tug of the bulbous organ against his opening.  Since bonding with Hannibal, he found he never felt more complete then the moments when they were tied as one, their scents combing into one unique smell entirely them.

 

It was exactly what Will needed to breath, clearing his mind of everything but Hannibal and the bond they shared.  It was a reprieve from the harsh reality that waited for him outside of heat and one he would more readily confront after this.

 

Eyes closed, Will could even imagine that they were back home.  Tucked away in the safety of their room, sun light crawling through their window to cast shadows of a waning day across the floor.  Morning to afternoon, afternoon to evening…a day lost to the warm embrace of each other.

 

“Hannibal,” Hands splayed over his Alpha’s toned chest, fingers sliding through the sparse course hair that grew there, greyed to show his age better than the sex-dishevelled tresses fanning over the flat pillow beneath them.  Will tried not to think about that, the thin mattress, thinner pillow and rough worn sheets.  He willed his empathy to take him home and pressed his mind to shift the feeling of chilled institute air to become the licking heat of their bedroom hearth.  “I want to take you home.”  He moaned, clenching down around his mate as a final thrust forced the swollen knot deep inside one last time, it’s final girth sealing them as one.  It was maddening.  The heavy mass, so thick it stretched him to his core, unable to leave until they were finished.

 

Will bit his lip, tested the give of the trapped organ against his opening with a slow roll of his hips and felt the familiar heat of release flood his insides.  It was enough to trigger the Omega’s end and Will shuddered as he spilled himself across his Alpha’s stomach.

 

Hooded stormy eyes looked down to meet maroon and the illusion was broken.   They weren’t home, and with the current evidence against Hannibal might never share another heat in the comfort of their bed again.  Back in the privacy cell, a large intruding window to their side with an unobstructed view of their most intimate moment.  He felt violated.

 

Will forced himself to smile anyway and instead focus on the gentle brush of Hannibal’s thumb against his skin, “It will be a shame to see you go.”  He said, offering little reassurance against his mates returning worries.

 

Will turned into the hand that rose to tuck haphazard curls behind his ears.  They didn’t stay, the thin corkscrews popping free as soon as his fingers lifted away.  He’d known they wouldn’t remain smooth, as stubborn as the Omega’s whose head they sat upon like a crown.  “Will you return for your actual heat?”

 

Will’s smile faltered, he hadn’t thought that far ahead.  “I’m hoping to have you out long before that.”  He rolling his hips to feel Hannibal’s rigid cock move within him again, brush against his prostate and pull another breathy sigh from kiss swollen lips.  “I just need to find him.”  _Him_ being his stocker.  He needed to find Hannibal’s framer and turn the tables, plant equally incriminating evidence against him and in turn paint Hannibal as the victim he was.  “I wont stop until I do.”  Will was a hunter, had been even before Hannibal had taken him into the darkness and revealed the life that waited for him in blood and shadow.  He had hunted the Ripper, refused to give up on the monster until he’d found the killer in his bed.  He would find his stocker now.

 

Hannibal hummed, sliding a calloused hand up Will’s rocking body to grip the nape of his neck at it’s pressure point.  A mimic bite.  He had used it before on the omega, only once.  It had been enough.  At that time, he had used the pressure point to push his authority when Will would not see reason, now he did it for comfort.  In the position they were in he could not properly claim him, sink his teeth into the soft layers of skin against his throat and add another marking to Will’s collar.  This would do.  He responded beautifully, arching into the hold and pressing back into Hannibal’s hand as he would have done for his bite.  It was marvellous to watch, to see the way his mate longed for his mark upon his skin.  “Do not be reckless.  If you become impatient and rush into this he will catch you.”  And then Hannibal would have to bathe Baltimore in blood.

 

Drunk on the pheromone and the blissful grip of the faux bite Will gave his mate a cold look, there was a reason Omegas responded to that hold.  “Hannibal.”  Will warned and twisted against the grip that held him.  He hadn’t much enjoyed the faux bite since Hannibal’s misuse of it against him a year ago.  His hold loosened as he was made to remember something Will would never allow him to forget again.  This was not the Omega he had claimed last year.  This was a monster as dark and ruthless as he was.  His hand slid from the curve

 

Will turned into his palm, eyes trained on Hannibal dark maroon and bit his flesh, pinching the think meat with blunt Omegan teeth, “Trust me.”

 

He made no comment and Will nipped again, harder.

 

“I can wait Will, but if I am to be honest, I do not know if I can trust that you to keep a clear mind and level head about them when this reaches its climax.  This killer has been planning far longer than you or I have been aware of his presence.”  Not even his scent had been available to Hannibal’s sensitive nose after his trespassing.  He knew them well enough to know to mask that beyond the average.

 

Will laughed, humorless, “At this point you don’t have a choice.”

 

He smiled, “I can choose instead to worry.”

 

“You can worry while having faith, Hannibal.  I will find him and I will render him before my next heat.”

 

He had missed this most of all during his time away, their arguments, one keen mind against the other, a game of chess played only with their Kings, “Faith and trust are not the same.”  He argued, “A man can hold undying faith in God while recognizing the foolishness of trusting his life in his hands.  He kills his loyal followers as quickly and as ruthlessly as he does everything else.”

 

“Then give me your faith.”

 

He wet his lips, “And my trust?”

 

Will shrugged, “Trust is earned.”

 

“So is faith.” 

 

“Yes, but I already have that.”  Will kissed the small indent in his palm.  The circle of teeth would bruise, a tender reminder for Hannibal to look back on after the scent of heat faded from his skin.  He would feel Will every time he moved his thumb for the next few days.

 

Hannibal’s smile returned.  “Yes, you do.”  He would have faith in Will find his stocker and faith in him to find a way to frame the man and see him too trapped behind bars.  But he still didn’t trust his methods.

 

“Tell me how you plan to find this killer, should he prove difficult to find.” Knot deflating he tugged himself free with a low moan and rolled them to their side, his back once again facing the window, blocking their voyeur.

 

Will pressed himself into the sticky body against, breathing deep their combine scent and the warmth the other man offered against the rooms chill.  “He won’t be hard to find.”  He assured, “He wants my attention.  All I have to do is wait and he’ll come to me.”

 

“For you.”  He corrected, “You may wish to find him first.”

 

“I can only work with what I’ve been given Hannibal.”  He said.  “If he comes _for me_ before I find him, I’ll just have to make sure I’m ready for him.”  He combed fishhook scared fingers through sweat slicked hair and wished again that they were home.

 

“And if you are forced to kill him to protect yourself?  If you cannot frame the murders against him to set me free?”

 

Will cast a tired look up to his mate.  Hannibal always had back up plans, back doors for back doors and if he ran out of doors start opening windows.  This was his reassurance.  Making sure that Will was prepared with more than one plan of action.  “I’ll frame someone else.”

 

That made him smile, “Would you be willing to frame an innocent, to free a monster?”

 

“You’re enjoying this.”  Will noted.

 

Hannibal didn’t deny it, “Then tell me, who would you frame?”

 

He sighed, he really hadn’t thought that far ahead yet, he was really hoping to find more proof of who it was and stage a few murders to point the guilt away from Hannibal before it came to that.  “I don’t know, maybe Jack.”  Maroon eyes turned to face him, almost surprised, “He’s been pissing me off with the whole arresting you and having you locked up.”  He shrugged, “I could start chopping off pieces of the lady in the basement and leave them around for him to find.  Sprinkle in a few other corpses.  Have her body found as the final piece in his basement.”

 

“Mariam Lass does not deserve that as her legacy.  She was a very strong woman.” 

 

 “You stole her arm and used it to piss off Jack.”  He countered, giving his mate a look who offered the barest shrug in turn.  “I don’t know if that would work anyway…too many flaws.  I’ll figure something out.”  He closed his eyes against the slow slide of Hannibal’s hand along his spine, it had helped him sleep on more than one occasion, when nightmares still plagued his sleep, “Just…trust me.  Please.  I’ll get you free, I promise.” 

 

“I believe you.”  He believed that he would try, at the very least.  Even the best set plans could suffer failure if one essential element fell out of place.  The simplest error setting everything to ruin.

 

Hannibal was forming a plan of his own.  One to free himself and steal his mate far away from America.  He would hold his Omega against him again in the warmth and comfort of their home.  Whether that home was in America or anywhere else in the world that extradition would not follow them.

 

“You’re planning something.”  Will accused, “I can feel it.”  He was met with a smile instead of an answer, the upturn of lips more than enough to admit he’d felt correctly through their bond and Hannibal had no intention of stopping his scheming.  “At least wait until we’ve tried it my way.  I don’t care what other back up plans you have, just, give me a chance.”

 

“And if mine is better?” 

 

“Then you’d better make sure I’m in on it too, unless your plan is to have us both trapped in the BSHCI.”

 

He seemed to consider this, the slight cant to one side as he admired his mate, skin flushed from sex and eyes bright.  He looked healthier than he had upon his arrival, more like the man who had accompanied him to the fundraiser and not the wilting Omega who had stepped through the door to meet him after Matthew.

 

“I would never endanger you Will.  Neither your life nor your freedom, both are far too precious. ”

 

“What’s your backup plan?”  He asked, brow quirked. 

 

“A last resort that will change our lives forever, let us leave it a secret for now.”  He kissed him, soft and reassuring, “You have enough to worry about.” 

 

Will wanted to pry, push Hannibal until he offered some hint as to what it might be, and knew there was no point.  If Hannibal wanted to keep it a secret he would either lie, or deny Will entirely.  As Will hated being lied to it was better to live in ignorance. 

 

Both men were jarred when Matt’s voice suddenly echoed through the room.  "Hormone detectors indicate that heats over.  Doctor Lecter, I need you to please return to the cage in the back of the cell and close the door behind you.  Security will be here momentarily to assist in clean up and escort."

 

It felt like a punch to the gut, reality taking his mate from him as soon as he was cognitive enough to enjoy a real conversation with him.  Some that didn't entail begging, moans or bone melting orgasms. 

 

"Will," He looked to Hannibal and the fingers he was pressing into his flesh hard enough to bruise.  "You need to let me go."  He coaxed, fingers sliding over his skin in gentling.  “Or I won’t see you during heat.”  Will let go.  Allowing Hannibal to rise from the bed and gather his clothing. 

 

He hadn’t even realized he’d grabbed on.

“My apologies doctor, you need to remain undressed for the next few minutes.”  The voice chimed.  “You can turn your back to the door if you’d like.”

 

He paused, looking back at the one-way glass before leaving his jump suit where it had been abandoned to gather Will’s own.  He folded the jumpsuit as carefully as he would a silk shirt and set the abandoned garments by his Omega. Stealing one last kiss, he crossed the small room and stepped into the containment cell, closing the iron barred door behind him. 

 

The sound of locks sliding was almost instantaneous and Will wondered if they would have locked automatically had the door been closed before Hannibal’s entrance.

 

“Thank you doctor.  Will, if you’d like to get dressed I’ll open the door and have security escort you out.”

 

“Do I get to shower first?  Use the washroom?”  He slipped the borrowed jump suit over his sticky skin and heard the notifying alarm that the main door was unlocking even as he began to zip up the suit.  Four betas, each wearing a pheromone resistant mask entered the room and the side door to the observatory slid open, Matt exited wearing a mask of his own. 

 

“There’s a bathroom in the changing area I showed you before.”  Matt informed, walking toward the door.  “Come on, I’ll take you out.”  Nodding Will slipped on the foot wear he’d been provided and followed the orderly, sparing a glance back to his Alpha just as a shower of water poured from the ceiling.

 

“What are they doing to him?”  It wasn’t what he’d expected.  A shower yes, but he was sure there was a proper bathing facility for the inmates, not small cages with faucets overhead. 

 

“It’s a chemical shower.”  Matt explained, bringing him back up the stairs he walked down only earlier that morning.  “It’ll strip all the Omega scent from him, leave him basically odorless for the next two or three hours.”

 

Will looked back over his shoulder in the direction of the cell and the feeling of detest that was humming through his link.  Hannibal would be completely without him in a few short minutes; their hours of bond building and love making torn away.  Another piece of his life he could no longer have or control.

 

The sound of the door opening at the top of the stairs brought Will’s mind back to the here and now, the Omega stepping through back into the room he had endured so much humiliation in before.  The same orderly from that morning was waiting within.  “Get it all out of your system?”  He asked as casually as the weather, making Will’s face redden with embarrassment and anger. 

 

“Not really any of your business, is it?”  He snipped.

 

Matt shrugged, “They did what they had to do, the usual.”

 

His friend nodded and Will wondered if they often discussed what they witnessed during shared heats, if the orderlies had a made a game of exchanging people’s private moments like cheap porno.  “Where’s the bathroom?”  He asked before he could say anything he might regret.  There was still a chance he might have to visit here again and he didn’t need these men making things more difficult then they already were.

 

“Out of order, sorry, I did bring you a role of paper towel though.  You can at least whip up a little.”  The other man said.  He almost seemed genuinely apologetic for the inconvenience.  Will thought it might have been more toward himself for having to search out a role of something for Will to clean up with then any actual care toward his discomfort.

 

Matt sighed rubbing his face where the mask had bitten into his skin, “Is it really?  I thought Chilton had it fixed yesterday.”

 

“Nah, he had them reschedule to fix the pipe tomorrow.  Had maintenance fix his private one instead.  Apparently the ventilation was going bad in it.”  He shrugged, “The Omega bathroom still has a broken pipe.  No water.”

 

“Shit.”  Matt turned back to Will and this time there was genuine sympathy in his dark brown eyes.  “Sorry, I can see about finding you a bowl of water of something.  Wet towel?”

 

“No,” he’d had enough of this hospital already.  “It’s fine.  I’ll just change.  I can shower at home.”

 

“Alright,” the orderly shrugged, “if that’s what you want.  You can get dressed in the washroom after we examine your skin.  We need to check you over for-” we’ll need you to change in front of us again, let us see your skin and-”

 

“It’s fine.”  Matt interrupted, “I watched them.   There was a little tight gripping that might have left a hand spread but nothing rough.”  He cast a little sympathy Will’s way, “It’s his first institute heat.  Let him off with changing.  We don’t need to make him give us a spin.”

 

The pair exchanged a look and Will silently thanked God when they handed him his clothes.  “Thank you.”  He made quick work of the borrowed suit, striping off the white clothes to whip a little excess filth off on the fabric and toss in the laundry bin before quickly pulling on his own.  He wanted out of there, as quickly and discretely as possible.  It would be bad enough being seen walking out of the institute, it would be worse stepping out reeking of sex.

 

“Next time you’re gonna have to go through all the motions.”  The orderly Will was seriously considering marking for death, informed him when he exited the washroom.  “No exceptions.”

 

Will nodded and they opened the door for him.  He stepped back out into the more familiar halls of the building and walked the long stretch of corridor into the heart of the building and out the front door with a clipped pace.  He didn’t bother checking out.  Either they could give him a call and reprimand him for it later or check their God damn cameras and see that he’d left.  He wasn’t going to give Chilton the opportunity to question him and he wasn’t going to endure any more eyes following him down the hall or casting sympathetic stares than he’d already felt following his back. 

 

Morning light kissed his face and Will paused long enough to take a breath.  The air was cool, colder than the institute, but crisp and welcoming.  He had work to do, and less then three weeks to do it if he wanted to avoid a repeat performance.  Fishing keys from his pocket Will cursed.

 

His needed a ride to his car.

 

OoOoO

 

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your kudos throw tomatoes at the author for taking too long, your comments encourage updates within a fortnight.
> 
> Will debates between a taxi and a friend for a ride to his car.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> Your kudos are waiting for the still owing blow job, your comments are rolling around on the floor playing with the dogs.


End file.
